


Not Your Fault

by CanuckleheadCowgirl, magnetocerebro



Series: The 714 Marvel Universe [41]
Category: Alpha Flight, Avengers (Comics), X-Men (Comicverse), Young Avengers (Comics)
Genre: 714 Universe - Freeform, Addiction, Avengers - Freeform, Comicverse, Drug Abuse, Gen, Medical Lingo, Medical Procedures, X-vengers, co-authored, second generation X-Men, shared fanfiction, teenage X-Men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-10
Updated: 2020-04-18
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:55:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 17
Words: 71,469
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23098210
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CanuckleheadCowgirl/pseuds/CanuckleheadCowgirl, https://archiveofourown.org/users/magnetocerebro/pseuds/magnetocerebro
Summary: It's official: the second generation of X-Men are well on their way to adulthood and joining teams outside of the junior squad. But branching out has never been easy for an X-Man of any standing. Will this new wave be targets as much as their parents have been? Will they weather the storm or crack under pressure?
Relationships: Chance Summers (OC)/Bad Decisions, Christian (OC)/Karma (FATE), Kurt Wagner/Kate Bishop, Logan Howlett/K Howlett(OC), Scott Summers/Annie Hale (OC)
Series: The 714 Marvel Universe [41]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/552748
Comments: 9
Kudos: 6





	1. Overworked and Overwhelmed

Things had been a little bit strange around Westchester and the new semester was only just starting. Then again, it had been strange for a while. It was just that when Elin was at the public school, she wasn't there to see how odd it really was. But now? When she was there all the time and watching everything ... she really didn't like how her team was shaping up outside of practice.

It was almost like they were acting as stupid as possible when they weren't in the group, and that was something that she was sure Scott was going to notice sooner or later. If he hadn't already. And it seemed to Elin to be a little beyond the 'normal' level of stupid teenagers.

She'd been concerned for Chance for a while … if not for the fact that he was so hooked on the Canadian team then for the massively mixed signals he was giving off. She couldn't understand what the draw was to be in Canada — she understood the why, but it was just … not something that she thought outweighed the trouble that Alpha Flight brought with it. Unless of course Chance never heard anything about the old team, which, she supposed, was entirely possible.

But he wasn't acting much like himself either. When he showed up to the last practice, he had been almost manic — high energy, speaking faster than normal, restless … and that stupid tang of hot wires hung on his scent like a neon light.

The fact that the new girl that had transferred over from Mac's school mentioned the use of boost so casually — even still, in easy conversation — made it abundantly clear that its use there was pretty broad and, if she was to believed, not only tolerated but expected of most students. It fell to reason that it was entirely possible that Chance was simply going with the flow … but that … didn't exactly fit either.

Then there was the rest of his behavior. She'd finally gotten to a point with him where she could more or less ignore the flirting. It wasn't like he _meant_ it, after all. Not with her. And when she thought of all the mixed signals there … if she ignored the burnt wires, she could easily scent out that he had an attraction … but everything else about how he acted had her convinced that he was struggling hard to keep it as friends. But again, that fell into step with the fact that he had yet to meet even a halfway pretty girl he didn't like. So Elin made a point to remind herself of that — and to remind herself of her own code she was trying to follow.

He _had_ to be uncomfortable when she teased him about how he looked. He shut down every time, and it was pretty clear that he was at least a little torn up about all of it. It had to be weird for him … that kind of picking from his ex-girlfriend's best friend … yeah. That … that was stopping before she pushed a little too far on the picking and had him totally ignoring her again.

The fact that the stupid burning wires smell was getting stronger every time that he came back didn't make her feel any better about things, and she'd more or less made up her mind to tip off Scott if it kept up. She knew Canada was tolerating it … but she also knew that Westchester most definitely was _not._

So she was a little irritated that she knew she'd be missing the next practice to go to Japan for the weekend with her parents to check in with Hisako on how the new satellite was holding up. Still … the more she thought about it, the more she was sure that tipping off Scott was the next step. She just _really_ didn't want to get Chance in trouble.

She was pulled from her thoughts when Charlie joined her in the window seat — her book obviously forgotten long ago — and seeing as Elin wasn't even trying to pretend like she was reading anymore, it was pretty open for anyone to come and say hi.

"So," Charlie said as she sat down beside Elin. "Who or what is it that you're concerned over today?" She gestured at Elin with one hand. "And don't tell me that you're not worried. I'd be more concerned if you weren't."

Elin looked up at her and weighed it out … the last thing she wanted to do was to come clean to Charlie. "There are a lot of stupid decisions going on with the team right now, that's all."

Charlie nodded lightly and tucked her feet up underneath her as she sat with Elin. "No kidding."

"Maybe I need this weekend just to clear my head," she said lightly.

"Anything I can help with?" Charlie offered.

"I don't know yet," Elin admitted. "I think it's just a holding pattern right now."

Charlie nodded. "I hate that," she said with a small smile. "You have more self-control than I do, because I've already pointed out to Krissy that she doesn't even like the guy she's with… and Chance is just…" Charlie blew out her breath. "It would be easier to be mad at him if he wasn't so… my twin brother."

"He's just trying to figure out his own path," Elin said quietly. "And Krissy … I think she's about done with this guy, honestly." She set her book down and pulled her legs up so she could wrap her arms around her knees and rest her head.

"Thus the holding pattern," Charlie agreed.

"Not my job to push either of them to not do stupid things," Elin said.

"It sort of is my job with my brother," Charlie said with a little smile. She leaned back and watched Elin for a moment. "You can't tell me you haven't noticed he's off."

"He is," Elin agreed.

"If it makes you feel any better, he knows it," Charlie offered.

"It really doesn't," Elin replied.

Charlie nodded. "Yeah… I just meant... he doesn't actually like this girl."

"That's really not my business," Elin said.

"No, but you know more than you let on, and you and I both know it, so I thought I'd give you context to the twin headaches that are Krissy and my brother. Being stupid," Charlie said with a smile.

"Well, one of those should resolve quickly … and the other will be fine when the next cute girl wanders by." Elin gave her a little smile. "In the meantime … just have to wait them out."

Charlie opened her mouth to say something and then seemed to think better of it and shook her head. "Well, if you want some quiet time away from the drama, let me know. You know you're always welcome."

"I've got the weekend in Tokyo with Dad … that'll be a nice break," Elin said.

Charlie nodded. "I hope you have fun," she said as she got up to leave. "And… I hope things resolve soon, for both of our sakes," she added, this time with a smirk in place.

Elin smiled her way lightly. "I'm sure I'll hear all about anything I miss while I'm gone."

* * *

While Elin was headed out for the weekend, though, the junior squad was hanging out in the Danger Room for a good practice, joking around with each other as usual — though with Elin gone, Scott was giving both Gerry and Sying a chance to try their hand at leading the team for different exercises for most of the practice.

The dynamic of the team was a little bit off, if they were being honest. Krissy had a hard time being around Sying, because the truth of the matter was that she had _planned_ to break up with Christian by now — but Christian been gone for the past few weeks, and she didn't know why — and she knew it wasn't fair to Sying. So she was dealing with it brilliantly — by hardly even looking at Sying.

And Chance was in a weird mood, sort of restless and not joking around with Gerry despite Gerry's best attempts to get him into it. So the whole feeling of the practice was off.

When it was clear the team as a whole was off their game, Scott finally decided to end the sims and just have them work as a team on sparring together. He paired up Gerry and Cody and Sying and Chance and pulled Krissy aside — since she was the most likely of the whole group to actually talk to him.

"Whatever's going on between you all, keep it out of practice," Scott told her with a frown.

Krissy shifted slightly and then let out a little breath. "It's just drama stuff," she promised. "Just… a bad combo of a whole lot of stupid, okay? It's not my fault guys are all idiots." She gestured toward where the other four members of the team were paired up with each other. "Because they are. All of them."

If he hadn't been so irritated at how poorly the practice was going, Scott would have agreed with her, too. "You all know how to get along better than this. Whatever it is…"

"I can only promise that I can help with Sying," Krissy said, holding up a hand. "I know what the problem is there. Chance is just… in a bad mood for some reason." She shrugged. "It happens. Murphy's Law is probably part of it; I dunno. But I'm not in charge of all the boys."

Scott shook his head. "I know."

She nodded and then tipped her head to the side. "Okay, well, as long as we're clear—"

"I just don't want to see another practice like this one," Scott admitted.

Krissy frowned his way, but before she could point out that one bad practice wasn't the end of the world — and she was about to — they were distracted by a bad _crack_ and then a cry from Sying, and both of them turned to see that Sying was holding his arm and Chance was already apologizing faster than he could quite get the words out of his mouth.

"Oh crap — I'm sorry — I didn't — are you okay?" Chance asked.

It was obvious that Sying's arm was broken, but he was nodding already Chance's way. "It's fine; it's healing already," he promised, though Chance still looked totally miserable.

"Alright, that's it," Scott said, shaking his head. "Everyone, hit the showers. Sying, let Hank take a look at that just to be safe."

The kids all shared looks but very quickly split up, though Chance stuck around, still looking totally shocked with himself and apologizing before he caught up to Scott.

"What happened back there?" Scott asked him outright when they hit the hallway.

Chance shook his head. "It was an accident. I just… I got too worked up." He passed a hand through his hair, and Scott couldn't help but frown watching him. It was obvious to see that Chance was _still_ worked up, not to mention the fact that he'd been grumpy and moody all weekend and had been short with his brother and sisters this morning.

"Chance, whatever this is—"

"I think I'm overstretched," Chance blurted out, again with the words seeming to tumble out faster than he could form them, and he took a deep breath to try to slow down again. He ran a hand over his face. "I… my schedule is crazier than it should be right now," he said, making a real effort to speak slower as Scott watched him with an obvious frown. "Practices up north… and then all of the flight suit stuff… I mean, I knew it was going to be rough, but I swear, Dad, I think I kind of might have pissed off the government office up there, and they've got me running circles because they're sore losers."

Scott frowned and crossed his arms. "What happened?"

Chance took a deep breath and let it out and shook his head. "I told them I didn't want to take any boost, and they got huffy about it." He fell into a glare at the memory of it. "I told 'em if they wanted someone with powers, then they should have signed someone else. Don't think they were too happy about it, to be honest, but it's my decision to make, and I opted _out_."

Scott's frown deepened when he heard it, and he couldn't help but jump to concern — though it would explain why Chance had been off lately if he was overworked. "Are you sure you want to keep pursuing the team up there if that's the case?" he asked as carefully as he could.

Chance nodded. "The whole point is to prove I can do it on my own because people don't think I can. And Dad, this is literally exactly what I moved up there to fight — people who think I need a _boost."_ He nodded a bit to himself and set his shoulders. "I want to shove it in their faces when I can do it without their help. That's the whole _point_."

Scott watched Chance for a long moment. It was clear he'd made up his mind about this, and Scott could absolutely see the logic of it: he'd heard the argument when Chance had decided to go to Canada in the first place and knew that it was important to him. "If you're sure," he said at last.

Chance nodded. "I just can't let them win here, Dad. I can't let them go on thinking that they can chase me off or make me think I need the help by trying to — I dunno — exhaust me or something." He ran a hand through his hair again, which was starting to stick up in place. "I don't … I hate to ask it, because I like coming home, but Dad… maybe if I took a weekend off of coming home to _breathe_. Get a break. Sleep for a few days instead of traveling. If I can just get through the semester so I don't have school on top of all this, I can survive this crap. I know I can."

Scott let out a long breath. "I know you can," he agreed. "But you need to be careful."

"I am," Chance promised. He shot his dad an attempted smile. "Besides, I actually do like the _team_ , just not the bureaucracy. And the flight suit's amazing. I just need time to, you know, not _die_ in the meantime." He gave Scott an _actual_ smile. "Just means I'm doing something right if I'm pissing them off, right? I just have to show them they can't make me tired and desperate enough to take the boost." He shrugged. "I'm kind of used to it at this point. The low expectations."

"We're all pulling for you, Chance," Scott told him.

Chance nodded. "I know," he said. "Thanks, Dad."

* * *

Meanwhile, in Japan, Elin was settling in with her father when her phone went off with a series of texts from Krissy telling her all about how _stupid_ practice had been and how all of the boys had completely lost their minds.

_Oh my gosh. You left and I somehow became appointed Babysitter of the Idiots. HOW DID THAT HAPPEN._

_No, really. Scott seems to think I should just KNOW why Chance is an idiot and why boys are LIKE THIS._

_YOU HAVE A Y CHROMOSOME, SCOTT. YOU'RE MORE LIKELY TO KNOW THAN ME._

_WHY IS THIS HAPPENING TO ME, ELLIE._

_That sounds horrible_ , Elin texted back. _I am so unfortunate to be where I am and to miss out on all the stupid that's so thick there._ She smirked to herself and leaned back as she shot and sent a picture of the hot springs all surrounded by snow where she was chest deep in hot water with just her toes sticking up in the water to make sure that there was no mistaking what she was up to. Especially since she hadn't taken off the nail polish that Malin had painted on for her just the day before. _Dad doesn't look like he'd know the answer, so my resources are tapped_ — _but I won't send you that picture. We are not allowed to document Relaxed Dad, okay?_

_Take me with you next time. I swear. I'm going insane over here._

Elin shook her head and smiled. _I don't know. If it's that bad, maybe I should just stay._

_NOT WITHOUT ME._

_And yet here I am._ Elin replied. _On the other side of the world._

 _Ugh. I hate you so much sometimes,_ came the response, followed shortly after by, _You haven't run into my stupid boyfriend out there, have you? Because if you have, I wouldn't be opposed to remote-stabbing._

Elin frowned to herself. _No. But if you're miserable, we're pretty well done with what we were supposed to do, and I doubt that Dad would be mad if you and your dad just … showed up._ There was a pause before she sent the coordinates.

It was only a couple minutes before Kurt and Krissy simply appeared, both of them grinning widely. "Oh, fancy seeing you here," Kurt called out, already laughing to himself at his joke.

Logan burst out laughing on seeing them, though he looked perfectly relaxed all stretched out in the hot water. "Did we seem like we were in distress?"

"Um, no, _I_ was in distress," Krissy said, raising her hand.

"And I am simply the courier to de-stressing activities," Kurt chuckled.

"That's too bad," Logan said. "Because I've got a source for liquor and another source for ninjas …"

Kurt gestured grandly Logan's way. "Exactly."

"Yeah, but if you're just the courier, that means you're not tagging along," Logan pointed out.

Kurt rolled his eyes dramatically. " _Laecherlich_. Consider it my tip for goods delivered."

"Did the 'goods' bring their bathing suit?" Elin asked.

Krissy broke into a grin. "Obviously."

"Well, get changed and hop in," Elin said. "The water's perfect."

* * *

By the time February came around, Krissy was pretty much _done_ with the whole situation with Christian. She had enjoyed not having to deal with him over December — which she _knew_ was a bad sign — but then he hadn't shown up since the end of the last semester. Now? Now, she was just _done_. If this was his way of blowing her off, then screw him.

She had _tried_ to do this right. And now she was tired of being tied to him and feeling like she couldn't move on.

After all, this was supposed to be _fun_. It was supposed to be a fun little fling, and she'd really felt like she was done with it by the end of November. Which was right about the time he disappeared. Like an idiot.

She was mad at him, she was mad at herself, and she was done with all of it.

So, after team practice — which, she hated to admit it, had gone much better than the last one, though she wasn't sure if that was because she'd already figured out what to do about Sying or if it was because Elin was there or if it was because Chance _wasn't_ …

And don't think she hadn't noticed that something was up with him, too, and she'd get to that later. She'd already emailed him to ask him if he was okay and got some line about being overworked, but if he came back grumpy again, she was going to storm Alpha Flight headquarters or something — but that was later.

For the moment, she was more focused on pulling Sying aside after practice. "Sying, I'm sorry," she said, her eyes wide as her tail swayed behind her. "I've let this whole thing get out of hand."

Sying frowned her way. "What are you talking about?"

"This whole thing with Christian," she said, which only deepened Sying's frown. She chewed on her bottom lip. "I wasn't lying to you when I told you I didn't want to get serious — and I gotta be honest, I thought we'd be broken up by now. But he's gone and disappeared on me so I can't do it properly."

"It's fine, Krissy," Sying said, the frown still in place. "You made it pretty clear—"

"I'm _trying_ to explain why it's taken so long for me to get around to — I'm _trying_ to tell you I was ready to cut things off with him months ago," she said in a breath, her eyes wide.

Sying was quiet for a moment, sort of guarded — which was her fault, she knew. "Alright," he said.

"I'm trying to — I just—" Krissy took a deep breath, and all of the next phrase came out at once. "Do you want to do something on Valentine's Day with me?"

Sying stared at her, though he couldn't quite keep from grinning. "Yes."

"Great!" Krissy felt like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders as she broke into a grin.

"But Krissy?"

She paused and turned his way. "Yeah?"

Sying was still smiling a bit at her, but he had his arms crossed. "You shouldn't have made me wait. I just wanted to be clear about that."

"I know," she said, then took a deep breath. "I'm going to make it up to you, though."

He couldn't help but smile at that. "We'll see."

"Are you _goading_ me?" she asked, her eyebrows high.

"Will it get me flowers?" he teased right back.

"The way you're going?"

He grinned and rushed over to wrap her in a hug. "I'm so glad you came around."

"You know what? Me too."


	2. Christian's Return

Sying was in a pretty good mood on Valentine's Day, and he came down to breakfast grinning as he kissed Elin's cheek. "Happy Valentine's Day," he sang out to her.

"And a happy day to you too," Elin said, smirking his way. "What has you in such high spirits?"

"I'm going out with Krissy later on today," he said, grinning even wider. "Her mom gave us permission to use their island and go sailing."

She looked shocked. "You're kidding me."

"Do I look like I'm kidding?" he shot back, grinning wider as he gestured to himself. "I bought flowers and everything."

She got up and made her way over to wrap him up in a hug. "Well _good_. It's about time!"

"Right?" He spun her around and then kissed her forehead. He took a deep breath and then tipped his head to the side. "I told her she shouldn't have made me wait… I gotta ask you… I mean. I don't want to just lie down and act like it didn't hurt, but Elin, it's a _date with Krissy_ and I just…"

She smiled up at him. "Enjoy it."

He grinned and spun her one more time before he headed for the door. "Mom's got like five kinds of chocolate, and she's going to hit you all with it — fair warning."

"Why?" she asked scrunching up her nose.

"She's in a good mood," Sying said with a small smirk. "I told her about the date this morning and I think her exact words were 'oh good, then I don't have to twist up an Elf'."

Elin shrugged with one shoulder. "Well … she kinda earned it."

"She did," Sying said, though he couldn't stop smiling. "I'm sure Krissy will come find you after the date, but save an ear for me, okay?"

"Always," she promised. "Go have a wonderfully romantic time — between the two of you, it should be pretty sickening."

"That's what I'm hoping anyway," Sying agreed before he headed out.

He wasn't surprised to see that Krissy was already dressed for a day in the Caribbean — though she still looked absolutely amazing. She turned around, grinned at him, and teleported over to grab his hand. "You look great."

"You do too," he said with a smile.

"So, how do you want to do this? We can borrow a bamf, or we can run there, or Mom said she could have someone fly us, but I think she put that option forward so Papa could say that we had a chaperone…"

He couldn't stop grinning, especially because she was a deep purple that meant she was flustered. "I think I can probably run us there no problem."

"Oh good, because that was my favorite option of the three," Krissy said with a little smile and an even deeper purple flush to her cheeks.

"Breakfast first, though, right?" Sying asked. "I mean, unless you packed that too, in which case, hold on, because I brought flowers and—"

"You brought me flowers?" Krissy asked with a steadily growing smile.

"Well, yeah."

She grinned and leaned over to kiss his cheek. "You're really made of so much sugar and sweet things."

"I've been told I'm my mother's son," he said with a little smile.

She grinned and took him by the hand as they went to grab a bite before taking off, though they hadn't made it all the way through breakfast before some of the other students started to trickle in — including, to Krissy's shock, Christian.

For a moment, she just stared at him before she settled into a serious glare. And the morning had been going so _well_. "What are you doing here?"

Christian gave her a rueful sort of smile. "I know, I know," he said, holding up both hands. "I owe you an explanation."

"You owe me more than that," she said, her eyes narrowed and her tail twitching irritatedly behind her.

He bit his lip and then looked around as it became apparent that several of the other students were watching the back and forth. "I was wondering if I could speak to you."

"Oh, _now_ you remember I exist," Krissy said with a little sniff, though when a few of the younger kids were snickering and the older ones were watching the show, she let out a breath and then turned to Sying. "Don't go anywhere. I'm just going to deal with this really quickly and be right back," she said.

Sying frowned. "Are you sure?"

She smirked at him and leaned forward to whisper just low enough that he could hear, "I just have to take out the trash."

Sying actually broke into a smile at that and made eye contact with Christian for just a second before he very quickly snuck a quick kiss and grinned at Krissy even wider. "You know. For luck."

She grinned and then disappeared in a poof of purple and took Christian with her outside for the second 'port, her arms crossed and her tail twitching behind her. "You have five minutes before I 'port you into the lake."

Christian looked properly ashamed of himself as he nodded. "I wouldn't blame you," he said. "I didn't mean to be gone that long. You have every right to be mad at me."

"That's right I do."

"I just got caught up in Norway," he explained. "I hadn't been back there since you and Chance got me out of the program."

"You got caught up for a little longer than 'I missed my flight and I'll catch the next one', Christian," she pointed out, still with her arms crossed.

"I know," he said. He took a step forward. "Listen—"

"Save it." She shook her head at him. "Even before you pulled this, I really wasn't that interested."

"I know," Christian said again, this time with a small smirk. "But we had fun, didn't we?"

"What do you want?" she asked, her arms still crossed.

"I just thought I owed you an explanation," he explained, then reached out to rest a hand on her arm. "I'll get out of your school and your life if that's what you want—"

She let out a sigh and at least _tried_ to be reasonable. "You shouldn't quit school."

"I've been gone a while; I think that ship has sailed," he pointed out. He shook his head. "That's not the point. The point is—"

But whatever the point was, Krissy didn't get to find out when, instead, there was a massive explosion that knocked both of them off their feet into the half-melted snow.

She must have blacked out, because she wasn't aware of much before she felt Christian shaking her shoulder urgently, and she groaned as she pushed herself up on her hands and then to her feet and shook her head hard to look around at the grounds and...what was left of the school.

" _No_ ," Krissy whispered as she felt her knees give out underneath her, and she stumbled, catching herself with one hand as she felt suddenly like she was going to pass out.

The school was in ruins. Absolute ruins. Not even a wall was left standing upright, though she could see one wall blasted all the way across the lawn like it was nothing. Some of the rubble was smoking.

_Which means…_

Krissy teleported straight to the center of the wreckage, her eyes wide as she started to dig frantically, her ears twitching for any sound of anyone buried under there, praying the whole time that someone _was_ so that she could know they were okay.

She could hear Christian not far off doing the same thing, digging desperately and swearing under his breath.

She could hardly see for how hard she was crying, her breath coming in hiccoughs as she kept on digging. There was an emergency system; her dad and the bamfs should have gotten everyone out. But there wasn't enough time. There was no warning at all.

She let out a strangled cry as she lifted part of the rubble in front of her and very nearly dropped it all over again when she saw the maroon-furred hand peeking out from underneath half of a wall. She could see part of his tail too…

 _Kade_. She pressed one hand over her mouth but could stifle her sob in the least as she desperately clawed at the wall. "Christian, please! Help me!" she called out, trying to lever it, the feud totally forgotten — it wasn't important when he was an able body to _help_.

Christian swore as he ran over to where she was before he went around to the other side of the fallen wall and swore some more. "Krissy…"

She strained against the wall a few more times. She even tried teleporting off with parts of it, sure that this overwhelming anger and grief would be enough to let her do it, the way she'd seen her father teleport off with people's arms when he was mad enough. But she couldn't do it. She just couldn't do it.

She was choking on her own sobs as she struggled before, suddenly, something whizzed past her ear, and she heard Christian call out to her but took a second to understand what was happening.

When she finally looked up at him, she could see the red-hooded cultists with guns pointed their way, and she bared her teeth, tears still streaming down her face before she teleported to the cultists, tearing weapons from their hands with a growl on her lips.

"Krissy!" Christian called out, and it was the pure distress in his voice that finally made her pause as she saw one of the cultists with his gun pointed right at Christian.

But _no way_ was she going to let these creeps get anywhere near anyone else, no matter who it was. She teleported behind the cultist and ripped the gun from his hand, beating him savagely over the head with it with her lips curled back in the kind of snarl her stupid grandfather would have been proud of. She bent down to give Christian a hand to his feet when she heard the sound of rifles being cocked around them.

"We need to get out of here," he muttered to her in a low tone.

She hesitated just long enough that she could feel his grip on her arm tighten. She didn't want to leave…

But then one of the cultists took a step forward, a wicked smile on under his hood. He clearly thought her hesitation meant that she was giving up, and that just wasn't going to happen. She bared her teeth at him before, in an instant, she teleported off again, with Christian in tow.

When they reappeared again, it was in Bed Stuy, at her uncle's building. Her mom swore by the healing powers of a good hideout on the roof up there, and seeing as no one was up there but the two of them, Krissy had to agree.

As soon as the smoke cleared, Krissy felt her knees hit the floor, sobbing hysterically. She couldn't get it under control, even if she'd wanted to _try_ , and she didn't actually want to try.

"We need to go," he whispered to her urgently when, finally, she had exhausted herself enough that she was all but limp and not even bothering to hold herself up. "If those guys knew where to find you before…"

She nodded, still holding onto him. "Storm… or maybe Kitty."

"You really think if they could get to Westchester they couldn't get to Chicago or LA?" he asked, and she frowned at his tone. She knew that he was trying to get her to think clearly, but there was _no_ need to sound so condescending. "Let's just keep moving. We need to get somewhere safe first or we'll get blown up like the rest of them."

"My dad…"

"Krissy." He took her head in his hands, turning her face up to his. "They're gone. You know that, right?"

"Someone should be there for them," Krissy said. If she'd had any tears left to cry, she would have, but at that point, she was too tired to even tell him to keep his hands to himself. "Make sure… last rites…"

"I'm sure the others will take care of that, but they're not the target right now," Christian reasoned. "Come on. Let me pick some hideouts. Places they won't think to look for you."

* * *

Sying drummed his fingers against the table, starting to wonder when was the appropriate amount of time to wait before he jumped into emergency mode instead of just frustration.

Ten minutes was too long for this kind of thing, but when it stretched into half an hour, he decided enough was enough and went for a run out around the grounds, if for no other reason than to scoop Krissy up if she was yelling at Christian and run off with her for something better to do for their Valentine's plans.

But when he didn't find any sign of Krissy or Christian on the grounds, he simply didn't trust the situation.

There was a terrified part of him that wondered if Christian had swept her off and she had just… gone with him, but Krissy wouldn't do that to him. Not after all that had gone into putting together their sailing date — and not when he was almost positive that she'd meant every word when she said that she liked him. Though considering how long it had taken to get there, he felt like he was justified in worrying a little bit that she'd gotten stolen away again and wrapped up in a different guy than him. It kind of kept happening. A lot.

He needed a little clarity before he jumped straight to sounding the alarm, though, and when he ran inside, he was glad to see that Elin was still curled up with her book.

"Okay, I need you to tell me if I'm being overdramatic."

"Probably, yes," she said before she looked up at him, but once she saw the expression on his face, the teasing tone and little smile disappeared. "What's wrong?"

"Christian came back," he explained shortly. "Just walked into the school this morning." He shook his head hard. "Krissy said she wanted to 'take out the trash,' but it's been half an hour, and they're not anywhere on the grounds and — at what point do I start to worry?"

Elin frowned and held up one finger as she took out her phone and texted Krissy. _Where are you? There is a beautiful, sparkling, maple sugar-coated boy waiting on you._ "Give her a minute. There is no way she'd ignore that." But when a few minutes passed and there was no response, she narrowed her eyes and tried again. _I just got invited out to dinner with Nolan. We're going to Betsy's favorite place in NY._

But again, after some time passed, there was no response.

"Okay. Now you can panic," Elin said as she got up and headed toward Scott's office. "Though if I was dating anyone at all, I'd tell her I was pregnant, and then, if she didn't respond, we'd know … we would know."

Sying nodded as he followed after her, his eyes wide. "Yeah," he said in a breath.

Elin knocked on Scott's door and pushed it open after he called out a soft and almost distracted sounding 'it's open'. She stepped in but didn't say a word when she saw he was on the phone — instead standing behind the chair in front of his desk and waiting with her arms crossed.

"Alright," Scott said to whoever was on the other line. "I'll call in the team. Have Wiccan teleport you here; we can't wait on this one." He paused. "Right. Thanks." With that, he hung up and looked to the other two. "I need you both down in the War Room," he said.

Elin paused but nodded her head. "We don't know where Krissy is," she said. "So if it's all hands …"

Scott stopped for a moment and looked at her, then nodded. "It is," he said before he simply went to the comms to call in the other members of the team, striding off toward the War Room and looking far more serious than he had even when the call had ended.

Elin turned to Sying, biting her lip as she simply fell into step behind Scott.

The other members of the team started to rush in, though it didn't take long before Sying and Elin got to find out for themselves who Scott had been on the phone with when Captain America arrived with Wiccan — and a few minutes later, the last to arrive were Kate and Kurt, who looked like they'd gotten dressed in a hurry.

"What's up, boss man?" Kate asked, though she paused when she saw that Steve was there with him, looking overly serious. "And, uh, Cap?"

"Kate, you might want to sit down," Scott said in a tone that he just didn't use very often, but that had her glaring at him and crossing her arms.

"What's going _on_?" she demanded as Logan and K gave the Wagners a knowing sort of look at their late and hasty arrival.

"The Avengers got a call about a bank robbery upstate," Steve explained, using the same tone of voice that Scott had been using before that had Kate all kinds of on edge.

"That's unusual for the Avengers — or what was it that had them calling you?" Kurt asked carefully, though Kate could tell from his tone that he was just as suspicious of this whole thing as she was.

"The identity of the robbers," Steve told them frankly before he directed their attention to the surveillance footage that he put on the screen, and Kate let out a loud gasp as the same time Kurt said 'no' when they saw the purple smoke as Krissy and Christian teleported into the bank vault.

Kate didn't even see Logan pull out the chair for her as she fell into it, one hand over her mouth as she felt Kurt behind her, hands on the back of her chair to steady himself as the footage played on.

It was very clear that something was wrong with Krissy. There was no audio of the footage, but it was easy enough to see that she was crying, openly, wiping tears from her eyes as she looked almost desperate pulling out deposit boxes and cash that Christian scooped up in her wake. When finally it looked like Christian had all of the cash he could carry, Krissy sank to her knees, an expression of pure pain on her face that none of them had ever seen before as she openly wept.

Of course, that was when the security arrived — and that, more than anything, was what had the occupants of the room concerned when they saw that Krissy was tearing into the police officers were a _ferocity_ that she simply didn't use. They didn't stand a chance before they were disarmed and Krissy had teleported off with Christian, leaving an emptied vault and several injured policemen in her wake.

When the footage cut out, Steve was frowning deeply — and most of the others in the room were in simple shock, though it was leaning more toward outrage for a few already. "Now, obviously, the Avengers don't think Krissy is doing this in her right mind — even the police agreed watching the footage that something is wrong here."

"That's right something's wrong," Kate said through the fingers of the hand covering her mouth. She was still staring at the screen even though the footage had finished playing, and Kurt was just behind her, even his tail perfectly still.

"The little jackass with her is the one pulling the strings," Logan said.

"What's his game?" Steve asked.

"We found him in a weapons program," Scott explained. "He was making progress at his rehabilitation, but then he fell off the radar for a while." He shook his head. "We checked the intel to see if he was caught up in the same weapon's program when he hadn't shown up for a while, but that wasn't the case when Rachel peeked at him."

"Is there any chance this is someone different pulling his strings as well? Or that the weapons program caught up to him after you checked?" Steve asked. "I just want to know if it's a possibility."

"I can pull Rachel in to find out," Scott replied, though he didn't look as if that was his first guess.

Steve nodded and then let out a breath. "It would be better if it was. I don't mind telling you the police when we arrived were already talking about how this just proves the mutant problem…" He shook his head. "The fact that she's a visible member of the X-Men is just going to make this worse if we can't get a handle on it fast."

"Kurt and me'll head to the bank they hit," Logan said, watching Kurt look more and more upset. "Might be able to pick up something they missed."

"I'll take a look at the bank records," Kate said quickly. "And try to work up a list of similar ones." She turned toward Billy with a pointed look. "Unless _someone_ wants to be a good uncle and—"

Billy shook his head. "I would if I could," he swore, one hand on his heart. "But believe it or not, there are things falling into place as a result of this, and as much as I want Krissy back too, I'd also like for certain members of your junior squad not to end up enslaved or brainwashed by Hydra, so…"

"That's a crap excuse, Billy."

"I know it sounds like one, yeah," Billy said. "But I'm serious."

Kate let out a noise of frustration. "Fine," she bit out. "I'll do the records thing then."

"I'll dig into his accounts online," K offered.

"She can't teleport too far," Sying said, leaning forward. "I can start looking."

Scott shook his head at Sying. "No, stay here. If we get another call — you know he's not going to leave it at one robbery if he's gone to all this trouble — your family and the Wagners are our fastest response when that happens."

"We can keep a holding pattern — and wait for you to send us out if there's a split in the leads," Elin said. "Monitor."

Scott nodded at that. "In the meantime, why don't you both help K and Kate," he suggested, in particular tipping his head toward Kate with a raised eyebrow look.

"James would be faster with the computers," Elin pointed out as she pulled out her phone. "I'll just text him and tell him to get home."

"Good." Scott got to his feet. "Jubilee, see if you can find either of them. I'll let Rachel know what's going on as well."

"On top of it," Jubilee said as she got to her feet — though most of the others had already started to trickle out, and Logan and Kurt had disappeared almost as fast as Scott had agreed to Logan's suggestion.

So the two of them were already at the bank as Kurt paced back and forth waiting for Logan, his tail twitching behind him the more he thought over the surveillance and how clearly upset Krissy had been on the screen.

Logan cleared it with the cops on scene — after showing off his ID and explaining what he was up to — and it wasn't long before he stepped into the vault, carefully scenting out what he could and looking over the state of the scene.

He hadn't really expected to find much of anything, but it was just something that he thought Kurt needed to do to keep moving so he didn't flat out panic — and it was possible that he might catch a specific scent that could point him to where they'd been. But the only scent that didn't belong in the vault was that of the two teenagers, sulfur, and way too much saline from Krissy crying.

When he finally met up with Kurt again, his friend was back to pacing, though he teleported to Logan in an instant. "Anything?"

"Nothing specific enough to nail down," Logan admitted. "Traces of bleach … but that could be from anything." Logan took a moment to watch Kurt before he turned to the police captain that was nearby and filled him in as best he could — including letting him know enough about Christian that the authorities would know not to let the kid achieve skin-to-skin contact.

Kurt let out a near growl of frustration at that and shook his head. "I've never seen her so upset, Logan," he said at last just after Logan requested to know how much had been stolen.

"He will pay, Elf."

"Oh, of that I have no doubt," Kurt said. "I would simply rather it be sooner than later."

"It will be," Logan said. "Everyone on our side is looking for a couple of kids — one of which thinks he's a helluva lot smarter than he is."

"He won't for very much longer," Kurt promised darkly.

It wasn't long before the cop returned with the numbers Logan had asked for — as well as a basic idea of what kinds of things were stolen from the safety deposit boxes so they knew what the kid was looking for. "There's no way this little punk can honestly think he's gonna walk away from this."

"Unless he believes he has powerful friends," Kurt suggested.

"That ain't gonna help him," Logan said, shaking his head.

"No," Kurt agreed softly.

"And he ain't that likeable to have any friends."

Kurt nodded. "This much is true."

Logan met his gaze and nodded before he hit his comm. "Headed your way," he said so Scott would at least be ready to hear that there was no news.

* * *

Chance had slept in a bit that morning — he was trying to do that more often — so he was running a little late to meet up with Jamie, who had already arranged for some tickets to a play she wanted to go see and then a dinner and hotel stay for Valentine's. None of which he could remember really agreeing to, but that was pretty much how things worked with her lately. She was a bulldozer.

"You're late," she said when he caught up to her.

"I was dead to the world," he said, shaking his head. "And a happy Valentine's Day to you too."

"Happy Valentine's Day," she agreed with a little smirk before she stood on her toes to steal a kiss and then pulled on his hand. "Come on. If we leave now, we'll have enough time to stop by this little cafe for food before the play starts."

"Woah, hey, at least let me get some coffee," Chance said, shaking his head at her. "I'm beat, Jamie; it's been a long month. I'm running on caffeine and spite at this point."

"Which is why you _need_ the day to relax," she argued.

"Coffee first," he insisted, which got her to roll her eyes at him, but she followed him down to the kitchen with her lower lip poked out.

He hadn't even finished his first cup, though, when his comm went off — the one for the team back home — and his eyebrows shot up as he picked up. "What's going on?"

"Krissy's missing," Scott told him. "Jubilee and Rachel are trying to find a location on her right now, but we know who has her. We're just trying to pin him down and find out if he's working for anyone."

"I'll be there as soon as I can," Chance promised immediately.

"Just stay by your comm," Scott told him. "We don't know when we'll have a location, and to be honest, there's nothing much to be done right now but wait."

"Is Kade okay? And Kari and Kaleb?"

Scott let out a breath that was audible on the other end. "Worried. But I'll keep you updated."

"Thanks, Dad," Chance said before he pocketed the comm to find that Jamie was glaring at him openly. "It's an emergency."

"So you're just going to ditch me? On _Valentine's Day?_ "

Chance tipped his head her way for a moment and set aside his coffee mug. "One of my best friends in the world has been kidnapped. Yes. I'm going to help find her." She didn't necessarily have to know that he didn't have to leave right _now_. Besides, he should probably tell Mac what was going on anyway so that he was in the know if Chance had to leave all of a sudden.

"It's Valentine's Day!"

"Yeah, well, she didn't ask to get kidnapped on Valentine's Day either," Chance said, already headed down the hallway as Jamie fumed behind him — and the further he got from her, the easier it was for him to decide he'd just go ahead and head to his ship after he talked to Mac. The _Shanghai_ could use a little pep talk to get the engines ready if he had to speed off.


	3. Helpless To Stop It

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note: MASSIVE TRIGGER WARNING for this chapter. Sorry in advance for the stupid. It seems all our older kids are going through consent issues.

As far as Krissy had been concerned, up until that moment, she had been on a mission to make the red-hooded cultists pay — though now, it was like the whole world had been yanked out from underneath her as everything changed.

The whole room seemed to swim and then come into focus more sharply for Krissy. Her first instinct when her still slightly-fuzzy vision registered someone pointing a gun at her was to teleport away, but something was blocking her. A dampening field, maybe.

She wondered briefly how the cultists could have snuck something like that into their hideout without her noticing before she realized… they weren't in Europe following cultists.

No. They were in a jewelry store, surrounded by several police officers with their guns drawn, but that wasn't the gun that she had focused on before.

That gun was being held by Christian.

He had the gun pointed at her head as he yanked her in front of him, shouting out his orders to the police officers. "Turn off the field or she's dead, do you hear me?" he demanded, his tone sharper than anything she'd ever heard.

"Chris-" she started to say before he pulled her tighter, and she fell silent.

It felt like the bottom had dropped out of her whole world as she tried to get her feet back underneath her, figuratively speaking. How long had it been that she and Christian had been tracking cultists and running for their lives? Sleeping in little village shacks and…

And now — _now_ she was standing in the middle of a firefight with the police. She couldn't teleport, but she wasn't wearing a collar; that had to mean this was some kind of dampening field. Which meant this had to be reality.

Which meant Christian had been _using_ her.

She bared her teeth as she tried to pull her arm out of his grip, but he was already walking her backward with the gun pressed underneath her chin. "Don't think about it, Krissy. I _will_ shoot you. I'll still make a mint off of you selling you off to those freaky red-hooded friends of yours when you're dead. Or maybe the Australians or the Russians… one of those weapons programs. I'm sure they can find some use for you."

Her mind was reeling as he pulled her backward. After spending so much time with him in the emotional state she was in… He had been more than willing to help her tear apart the cultists and to let her cry, and even though he wasn't Sying, he had been a comfort when she just fell apart thinking about her family and….

And she didn't know what, if any of it, was _real_.

"Teleport us out, Krissy," Christian said in her ear as they reached the edge of the field — she could tell because the image seemed to shimmer. She tried to fight the mental intrusion, but she was still in so much shock, and he had such a solid grip on her skin, that she couldn't, and the back alley street turned back into the village path they had walked to get there.

Or the one she'd _seen,_ anyway.

"Let me go," she said, but he just pushed the gun against her throat and let his fingers dig into her arm.

"Teleport us _now_ , Krissy, or I'll start by shooting you somewhere you'll survive."

She glared at him as he tightened his grip before she did finally teleport — only to pull her arm out of his grasp. "Where are we really, you creep?" she demanded as Christian stepped away. He didn't answer her, and she balled up her fists and took a swing at him — but her hand went right through him.

An illusion.

"Come on, Krissy. You really think I'm stupid enough to let you see me when you're being so unreasonable?" Christian laughed as his image swam back into something more solid.

She turned in a slow circle, shaking with rage, tears streaming down her face. "You _used_ me!"

" _Using_ , Krissy. I'm using you," Christian replied. He didn't sound the least bit sorry as she stood there shaking with anger.

"I won't help you anymore," she warned him, her hands still balled up in fists.

"Sure you will," he replied. "I'm the only connection you've got to the real world. If I don't tell you when to teleport, how are you going to avoid it when _this_ happens?"

At the word 'this', out of nowhere, something hit Krissy in the stomach hard enough to send her to her knees. She instinctively lashed out to try to fight back, but she couldn't see or hear where it was coming from as he hit her squarely in the jaw and then again in the stomach until she was gasping to try to get her breath back.

"You can't fight what you don't know is coming," Christian said.

"I'm _not_ going to play your games," Krissy insisted, her tail moving wildly behind her trying to protect her back as she kept moving to try and fend off another attack. "I won't help you. I won't fight for you. I won't teleport you into… into _jewelry stores_ ," she hissed through her teeth.

"Fine. If you don't want to do what I tell you, I'll just find some other way to make money off of you," Christian decided. She swung at where she thought his voice was coming from but came up empty. "I bet that cult of yours would pay enough to make me a king, and you won't even know I'm giving you to them until the moment their sacrificial knife hits your heart," he sneered. "They'd probably pay extra for me to keep you docile."

"You can't—"

"You'd never even know they had you, Krissy," Christian said. He laughed. "You can't even see _me_ coming," he added before she felt something heavy strike her head, and she blacked out.

* * *

When she woke up again, it was in that same shack as before. Christian was behind her, asleep, one arm around her. For a moment, her eyes widened, and she fought the sensation of panic as her first instinct was to push him _off_ of her.

But her second instinct… her second instinct was to be much quieter, more careful about it as she carefully, slowly slipped out from underneath his arm, trying not to wake him.

She ran to the bathroom to splash some water on her face and held onto the sink with both hands. She screwed her eyes shut as she concentrated hard, trying to force her mind to come to grips with reality. This shack wasn't it. It couldn't be.

For a moment, the image wavered, and then it changed. She was in a hotel bathroom.

She grinned. _Alright. That's step one_ , she thought to herself before she rushed to the window to see where they were, letting out a breath of relief when she realized they were still stateside.

She teleported down to the street level and then asked one of the hotel staff if they could give her an address of the place. Once she knew where she was — North Carolina — it was just a matter of a few 'ports before she was back in Westchester.

She let out almost a sob of relief when she saw that the school was still standing — Christian had lied about that, too — and went running for the front door, tears streaming down her face for the second time that day as she burst inside.

"Mama! Papa!" she screamed at the top of her lungs, not caring in the least that she sounded like she was five and terrified of the dark, not when she heard the familiar _bamf_ as Kurt appeared in front of her, looking thunderstruck and then, in an instant, relieved as Kate appeared shortly thereafter with one of the bamfs, rushing to her to wrap her up in a hug, crying the whole way down.

She sank to the floor with both of her parents, sobbing and clutching both of them to her as tightly as she could. She didn't care that they were in the middle of the entryway or that any of the other students or teachers might see. She didn't care about anything. The only thing that mattered was that her family was _alive_.

None of them were all that willing to get up from the floor, though Krissy finally cleared her throat, and her parents both let her up, though that didn't mean they'd let her go, either. Kurt was still cupping her face with one hand, and Kate was rubbing her back the way she used to do when Krissy was little and had nightmares about Azazel.

"Where's Kade?" she finally managed to ask when she got her voice back.

Kurt and Kate glanced at each other for a moment in silent question before Kate said, gently, "He's just upstairs, why?"

Krissy let out all her breath in relief before she broke away and teleported up to their suite where Kade was, in fact, playing with his LEGO set. He had a purple bandaid on his elbow, probably from falling down again, but other than that, he was perfectly healthy. And safe.

And _alive._

In an instant, she teleported over to where her littlest brother was to wrap him up in a hug, kissing his cheek despite his protests as he squirmed a bit but gave her a hug anyway. "You've been gone forever," he told her as he shook his head at her.

"I know. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be," Krissy promised, unable to stop herself from hugging him again as her parents teleported into the room to join in the snuggling.

* * *

"I really hate this kid," Rachel said as she shook her head, eyes still closed in concentration as she followed Krissy and Christian.

"What else is new?" Jubilee pointed out with a frown as she watched Rachel.

"Little creep …" Rachel said through gritted teeth. "He's … he's toying with her. It's pure mental torture, and frankly, if he wasn't poking around with her perception, I'd lobotomize the little freak from right here."

"But since he's in her head…" Jubilee frowned deeper.

"Probably not a great idea," Rachel said. "Though I gotta say … he's totally screwing himself. Logan was very clear when he said he wanted to know _everything_ that was going on. This kid is so far beyond dead …"

Jubilee watched Rachel for a moment before she nodded to herself. "Okay, so. On a scale of, like, one to Frosty…"

"On what he's doing to her? Think mind-controlled Charles."

Jubilee visibly winced at that and did a full-body shudder. "And we're _sure_ we can't lobotomize him?"

"Well… I can't without hurting Krissy. An actual physical one would just … cut it off."

"I can shove a plasmoid up his nose. That'd do it," Jubilee offered.

"I'm sure there is a waiting line," Rachel said then let out a little "oh come on."

"What now?"

"She thinks she's reuniting with Kade …" She shook her head. "He's conditioning her."

Jubilee frowned and shook out the plasmoids at the tips of her fingers. "Not for very much longer he isn't," she swore. "Are they still moving around, or can I just go shove something up his face?"

"I can't pinpoint them," Rachel said, shaking her head. "Right when I get a decent latch onto them … they move." She leaned back and rubbed her hand over her face. "The deeper I look into this kid, the more I'm not surprised the Norwegian weapons program wanted him. They didn't train him on how to evade us this well. They just sent him to immobilize people."

"So he's evil all on his own," Jubilee said, wrinkling her nose.

Rachel nodded. "It would have been easier if the weapons program was all behind it, wouldn't it?" She sighed out all her breath. "They caught him in December, but they didn't have him long. They set him loose and sent him to get an X-Man, and he decided he'd rather have his own slave than bring her to his masters."

Jubilee let out a noise of frustration as she got up from her seat. "Okay, if I hear any more, I'm going to lose it, so… I'm going to go check on Kate," she said. "I'll bring coffee when I get back."

* * *

It felt like it had taken forever for Krissy to finish talking with Scott, telling him everything she could remember, though he had to agree with her assessment that she wasn't actually that much help when it came down to finding Christian. She had thought she was in Europe this whole time, so with their record of the string of robberies she had apparently been committing with Christian this whole time, they knew better than she did what she had been up to this whole time.

Which… was not a fun thought, if she was honest.

She had her arms wrapped around her middle as she made her way down the hall. She was supposed to meet up with Kari for some ice cream; everyone in her family was determined to pamper her, or remind her that it wasn't her fault, or promise her that no one blamed her…

She was so wrapped up in her thoughts that she almost ran right into Chance as he walked out of one of the nearby classrooms.

For a second, they both blinked at each other, and then, he broke into a _huge_ grin and wrapped her up in a spinning hug.

"What are you doing here?" she asked him in disbelief as he kept his arms around her when the hug was through.

"I came down to help with the search," he explained, still grinning at her. "You had everyone worried, Kris."

"Sorry."

"Don't apologize," he said quickly. "It wasn't—"

"Wasn't my fault, yeah, I know, I've heard."

He shook his head at her, and she hadn't noticed how close they were until he lifted her head up with his index finger curled underneath her chin. "Hey. It really wasn't," he said quietly.

She stared up at his earnest expression for a while before she nodded and then wrapped her arms around him in a hug. "I thought you were dead," she whispered. "I thought everyone was dead."

"Well, we're not," he promised and kissed the top of her head. She paused and glanced up at him, and he smiled crookedly. "What?"

"What's with the… overly affectionate routine?" she asked with her nose wrinkled up.

"What? Oh, no, me and Jamie broke up," Chance said, shaking his head as he pulled her a little bit tighter, and she frowned. "You've missed a lot."

She shook her head and pushed against him slightly. "Chance…"

"Hey, I missed you, okay?" Chance said, brushing her hair out of her face.

"And that's sweet, really, but I'm not—"

Before she could tell him 'no,' he had stepped into her and kissed her. The fact that he was kissing her at all had her off-guard, but the fact that it lasted longer than just a simple peck had her downright suspicious as she pushed him away at the shoulders.

"Chance, I'm not really—"

He kissed her again, harder this time, pushing her back a step so hard that she knew in a second that this — this was _not_ Chance. For as stupid as he could be lately with Jamie and everything else, he had _always_ been gentle with her.

She pulled back to try to put some distance between them, her lip trembling as she realized what was going on. If this wasn't Chance…

"Christian, stop it," she said, her voice wavering as she tried not to betray how upset she was. She _thought_ she was home. She thought she was past this. She thought… She didn't even know how much of it was real. Probably none of it, if Christian was still here.

"I thought you'd _like_ it better if we changed up the view," not-Chance said, pressing her back still. She kneed him in the stomach, and he backed off for just a second before he slammed her against the wall, his arm underneath her chin and his face inches from her. "You weren't complaining a couple days ago," he hissed at her.

"A couple days ago, I thought you were on my side. I _trusted_ you," she said, kicking out at him once more. He stumbled back, but then the image shifted. Now, she was in a hotel room, different to the one that she had left before, with Christian glaring at her.

"You're not going anywhere. Where are you going to teleport? Go ahead and try it; you'll only get as far as this room and think you've gone all the way to Timbuktu," he sneered, and when she tried to hit him, her hand passed through his face.

She growled out her frustration. "When the X-Men catch up to you…"

But to her surprise, all of a sudden, he was pressed against her, his voice in her ear. "There are better things to get you all hot and bothered," he said, and she let out a noise of disgust, pushing back against him — but then, once again, nothing was there.

"Come on, sweetheart," he said mockingly. "You know you can't stop me. I could take what I want, and you'd never know. You'd think you were right back in Westchester watching a movie with Mommy and Daddy."

She was shaking with both terror and anger, but she didn't know where to strike so she could hit him. "Christian, _please_."

"More fun for me if you _play_ ," he said, and the timbre of his voice had changed to a slightly softer-sounding one. She spun to face the sound as, this time, Sying stepped closer, though the surroundings hadn't changed. "Maybe you'd like this one better."

"Christian, stop it."

"I'm being _considerate_ , sweetheart," he said with a leering smile that didn't belong on Sying's face as he got closer until he was just inches away, one hand on either side of her face. "I don't _have_ to let you see anything."

She looked away, unable to meet his gaze. She knew it wasn't Sying. She knew it. But she couldn't look at him, closing her eyes as he started to kiss her neck.


	4. You Can't Always Get What You Want

James' fingers were flying across the keys, and he had a hard glare on that nearly perfectly matched the one Logan was wearing — though both of them looked as if they had a secret between them all of a sudden.

"Oooh, okay. I like that look. That look is one that says things are about to happen," K said when she brought the coffee in and slipped next to Logan. "What's the plan and when do you make someone hurt?"

"I am going to stay here," James said as he kept working. "I found out where he gets his leads … nearly every one of the places he hit was through this one chat page … and I just set up a big hit that should send alarm bells on every one of his searches."

"Just waitin' on Kurt," Logan said. "Cap already knows. Just gotta fill in Scott with the finer details."

"The finer details of what, exactly?" Scott said as he arrived.

Logan turned with a troublemaking smirk that seemed entirely inappropriate considering what was going on. "Just gettin' ready to set the bait on this trap, Slim."

A few quick keystrokes later, James sat back and then turned to look up at Scott. "We've got a little time before the 'security breach' will be valid for these idiots to get into."

Scott looked between the two of them. "Which is all well and good and incredibly lacking in anything resembling details."

"What's to tell?" Logan asked with his arms held out wide. "We got a high dollar bank with an empty vault that's offered to let us borrow the place for a few hours."

"I put word out that there is an incredibly rare metal stashed in this vault," James said, smirking wider. "Price on the black market for this metal is somewhere north of a million a pound."

Scott raised an eyebrow as he looked between the two of them and let out a sort of disbelieving noise. "You didn't."

"We did," James said. "And the Avengers are already surrounding the place. I also made sure that the only person who can see the message is Christian. So … try to unclench."

Scott shook his head at the two of them. "I'll let the team know."

"We'll just need perimeter security," Logan said. "To keep Krissy from getting away. He's not goin' anywhere once he shows up in that vault."

"I just want to make sure Krissy's got a team of friendly faces when we get her out," Scott admitted. "I know he's not getting out, but if what Rachel's been telling me is any indication, she'll need the support."

"I'll keep monitoring and let you know when he moves on it," James said. "Pretty sure I can get into his cell through the email."

"Good. The sooner this is over the better," Scott said as he headed for the door.

* * *

"Krissy."

She looked up from staring at her knees. It wasn't that she hadn't heard the fight going on just beyond her, but she had heard so many fights…

Elin was crouched down in front of her. She was coated in Christian's blood, but it wasn't Christian's blood. She knew it wasn't.

"Krissy. Come on."

She shook her head lightly, shrinking away from Elin's touch. "Christian, please," she said softly, and Elin paused before she let out a light sort of laugh.

"You're getting better, you know," she said before she became Christian, crouched in front of her and looking overly smug. "A few days ago, you would have fallen for that."

"Maybe you're losing your touch. Getting repetitive," she said, her arms around her knees as she refused to look at him. "If you want me to teleport, it's not going to work."

"Of course it is." He grabbed her chin in his hand and forced her to look up at him. "Remember our deal. I say 'port, and you say 'how far?' Or you stop being useful to me…"

"And you give me to the cultists. Or the Russians or the Australians or whoever pays the most," she said dully. "You've said."

"And I meant it."

Krissy looked away from him despite her chin in his hand. She closed her eyes. "Stop… playing games," she said quietly.

"Well, you can't see where you actually are, now can you? I know how telepaths work, Krissy." He loomed over her, and she shrunk in further on herself. "I'm being kind. Would you rather think you were being tortured? Experimented on?"

"No," she said softly.

He smirked at her and pushed her hair back, tucking it behind her ear. "Now, then, Krissy. Time to teleport again."

* * *

Chance had been waiting on tenterhooks for the call to come in ever since his dad had let him know that Krissy had been kidnapped, though he was surprised at how long it had taken — long enough that he'd gone back to classes in Canada to wait for any word.

Then again, Krissy could teleport anywhere, so he shouldn't have been that surprised.

Either way, when he finally got the call that it was time to move, he promised to be ready to meet the jet in an instant and then made sure to call Mac to let him know what was going on. With that done, Chance set down his phone and immediately set to work getting what he needed, grabbing his uniform as well as his guns. He debated whether or not to take the sword before he decided to take it anyway, just to be prepared.

Jamie was glaring at him the whole time he worked, but he was more focused on changing and getting out the door — it wouldn't take the jet long to reach him — than he was worried about whatever it was that had her upset this time.

"So that's it?" she finally asked when her pouts and glares weren't getting her anywhere. "Your ex calls you up and you just… _drop me_?"

He stopped what he was doing to stare at her. "Come _on_ , Jamie," he said, starting to slowly shake his head as he simply couldn't believe what he was hearing. "She's in trouble."

"And the entire roster of X-Men and junior X-Men can't handle it on their own?"

"She's my friend," Chance said, still shaking his head at Jamie. She could be annoyingly jealous sometimes. "I'd do the same thing if it was Gerry or Elin."

"Oh, of _course_ ," Jamie said in a sneering tone. "If it was _Elin_ …"

He glared at her. "I'd do the same if it was you too, you know."

Her sneer softened the slightest bit, and she slid over to where he was to pull her arms around his waist. "So stay here," she said as she stepped in closer to him.

He let out a breath and leaned down to kiss her, somehow both surprised and not surprised at all when she got more aggressive about it, her hands on his hips as she tried to push him backwards until he pulled her hands back.

"Jamie," he said with a little frown, "this is the whole point of all the work I put in. If I'm going to be a hero, I'm going to go on missions sometimes without any warning. I'm not going to stop that just because you're in the mood."

"Ugh." She pushed against his chest with both hands. "You stopped being fun after you got that suit."

He sighed; he didn't really want to get into _that_ argument again, and besides, he had a jet to catch. "Whatever, Jamie," he said, crossing the room to get his boots.

She let out a huff of annoyance, but by the time he was ready to get out the door, she had moved to where the coffeemaker was and poured him a cup. "Here," she said, still glaring at him as she shoved the mug his way, though there was a little smirk at the corner of her mouth. "You'll need it."

"I'm not that tired."

"You've been exhausted running on both teams, and you know it. You'll thank me later," she said, still smirking, and then, just because she could, she leaned over and grinned. "Besides, you were busy last night."

He shook his head at her. He'd never known how to deal with Jamie when she was like this. So, he just kissed her — that's what she wanted anyway — and polished off the coffee on the way down to the hangar to meet up with the jet.

But he had to wonder if maybe Jamie didn't have a point, as at about the same time the jet touched down, he started to feel a little weird. At first, he thought he was just tired, but that wasn't… quite it. It was the opposite, if anything, like he was supercharged, aware of even the little dings in the jet as it touched down.

It was a bit like when he let Jamie into his mind, when he was aware of every part of her. Only this was much more intense.

"Come on, Chance, hop in," Gerry called out to him as the door opened. Sying was piloting with Elin next to him in the copilot chair, and Gerry held the door open for him as he jumped in. As soon as Chance was inside, he called out to Sying, "Floor it."

"Like you even need to ask," Sying replied, and the jet sped off in a second before Chance was even seated.

He still hadn't even gotten to his seat before the shouting started — panicked from Sying and Gerry and concentrated and angry from Elin and Cody, though Elin's was a lot more focused.

"Tear that _skitstövel_ apart as soon as we catch him."

"...she could have been anywhere…"

"...blast him if I get half the chance…"

"...If he's hurt her…"

Chance glanced up at his friends, surprised at the frenzy of activity. He could understand it, sure. He liked Krissy too. But was all the yelling really necessary? It wasn't like the first day, when it had been panic and trying to figure out what was going on. They had a plan, right? This was the final stages of the rescue — it shouldn't have been this frenzied.

He opened his mouth to tell Sying in particular to keep it down, since he was the worst offender, but he closed it again almost immediately when he realized that Sying's mouth wasn't moving.

Which meant…

His eyes widened, even as the yelling got louder, more incoherent. Gerry was saying something out loud, with his mouth actually moving, a debrief, and Chance tried to focus on that. Kari and Zoe were out searching some of Krissy's favorite spots in case she teleported out of their reach. Rachel was on Cerebro…

Sying's mental voice cut in — and that's what it was, Chance realized now. It had to be. His mouth wasn't moving, and after all, this was that same sharp feeling he got when Jamie was in his head. _Never going to let her out of my sight again._

And then another mental voice overlapping: _The more time he spends out of touch with the group, the worse he gets._ Come on _, Summers, get it together. You're better than this._

Chance nodded when he saw that Gerry had finished talking, but it wasn't stopping the flood of voices. All of his friends were worried, and Sying was on the verge of some serious panic. And he couldn't _shut it out_. This was _basic_ psychic defense, stuff he'd learned from Rachel forever ago. _Why_ was it so much harder when he was the one with the psychic powers?

He closed his eyes and didn't realize he was curling in on himself slightly until he hit the seatbelt. He tried to let out a breath and relax, but it was all so loud, just like Charlie had described when she got her powers. Even when he tried to shut the door to his mind, it was still like standing under a waterfall as everyone screamed around him, wordlessly.

"Chance," Elin said quietly from the aisle not more than a couple rows ahead of him as she headed toward the rest of the group. "Do you need some water?"

He glanced up at her to be sure that he'd heard her right, and she did seem to be waiting for an answer, so she must have said it out loud. He nodded quietly in response.

"I thought so. You look pale," she said before she walked to the back of the jet and returned with both a bottle of water and a candy bar before she sat down across from him. When she spoke, it was very metered. "We're all upset, but I think … you need to _breathe_."

"Thanks," he said, downing half the water bottle as soon as he had the top off, which did seem to help, and he stared at his hands for a moment as he focused on keeping the door to his mind closed and polished off the candy bar.

She watched him for a long moment as he tried to get a hold of himself, almost studying him, but he didn't move for a long time, just trying to get a handle on it.

The dull roar was starting to subside a little by the time he looked up at her again. "Sorry," he said, feeling pretty miserable, seeing as this was supposed to be a rescue for Krissy, not… whatever that had been. Jamie had picked the worst possible time to go off the deep end on him.

"She's going to be _fine_ ," Elin said firmly. "One way or another. We're mostly running decoy here. But I need to be sure you will be fine too."

He started to open his mouth to say he'd be fine, but before he got the words out, he let out a breath and shook his head instead and tried again. "I just need to get a better grip on this… psychic… thing," he explained, rubbing a hand over his face.

Elin let out a little humming sound. "Ah. So that's what it is."

"I _think_ that's what it is," Chance said, still pressing his fingers into his forehead.

"Not your usual thing, then?" she asked quietly, though she was leaning his way a little with an expression of concentration. "Trying to get some insight from the idiot we're hunting?"

Chance frowned right back at her, his eyebrows knitted together. "I don't have a 'thing,' El. You know that." He waved a hand and put the water bottle aside. "I don't."

"So … you haven't _picked_ one then," she said softly.

"What? No!" Chance turned to face her with the frown even deeper than before. "I'm _not_ … Jamie put something in my coffee, I think. This isn't — you know I'd _never_ —"

"How long has _that_ been going on?" Elin asked. " _That you know of_."

"She flew off the deep end on me because I was going after Krissy," Chance muttered, glaring down at his hands. "I'm pretty sure it was the coffee, anyway."

"I don't want to know the dirty details."

Chance's frown deepened. "That's not what I — no." He shook his head against the low roar of the voices around them.

"You still didn't answer me," Elin said. "How long?"

He took a deep breath and shook his head. "She's never done this before, I don't think."

"Then you _were_ doing it yourself before," she said.

"What?" He looked completely taken aback as he looked up at her. "What are you talking about? No I have _not_!"

Elin's expression remained flat as she watched him. "Considering the class you've been in, it's not odd or even surprising."

But at that, Chance started to shake his head. "I turned 'em down. I stormed out of the office and — and I _turned them down_ , El. Told them if they wanted someone with powers, they shouldn't have signed a human in the first place."

"That's _not_ what your scent says," Elin countered before she got up to grab him another bottle of water. "I _thought_ it was your choice … which is why I didn't bring it up sooner."

He was incredibly still as he thought it over. "How… long has my scent been off?" he asked at last, unable to look at her.

Elin frowned as she thought it over. "Fall formal," she finally replied, the bottle held out for him. "You were over the moon happy. I figured you chose to do it."

He shook his head lightly as he took the water bottle. "No," he said slowly. "No… that was when Jamie…" He let out a frustrated noise. "No _wonder_ I couldn't figure out how to argue with her. I was _high_."

She didn't say anything to him at first but again held up the bottle. "Drink it. I'm not asking."

He took the bottle out of her hands and took a long drink before he looked up at her again. "Since the dance… that just… makes so much sense," he muttered angrily.

"Are you going to be alright?" Elin asked.

He nodded slowly and gestured toward his own head. "It's more or less a dull roar. We're just doing perimeter security; I think I can ignore it now," he said.

She watched him for a moment and nodded once. "I've got Gerry sticking with Sying. Who would you rather work with?"

"If it's all the same to you," he said in a low, dull tone, "I'd rather not let my little brother know I'm _high_ right now."

"Wasn't going to tell him anything," she replied, one eyebrow arched up.

"I know, but… I'd rather stick with you. In case the comedown is as bad as I think it's going to be."

She tipped her head slightly. "That's fine."

"I'll try not to slow you down," he said with a small smirk.

"Don't do that," she said with a frown. "The … whatever that is. Just don't."

"It's really hard to know what 'whatever that is' means so I can not do it," he pointed out.

"The self-deprecating crap. Stop it."

He gestured toward her with one hand. "Hey. It's a fair assessment. I've never felt like this, and I don't know how fast I'll come down or what that will do, and when that happens, I might slow you down. So yes, I'm entitled to a little self-deprecation."

"It won't last that long," Elin said, tipping her head a little further with her eyes closed. "And your heart is ticking a little slower now. You'll probably be fine."

He leaned back and closed his eyes. "Still. Sorry about this. This is supposed to be a rescue operation."

She let out a frustrated sound and leaned back in her chair. "Proof that you've been in Canada too long. _Apologies_ for breathing, miss. _So sorry_ I missed someone being a total skeeze."

He opened his eyes and gave her a dry look. "You're hilarious."

"More than you know," she said easily. "Do you want me to leave you to stew in your own self hatred for the rest of the flight?"

He rolled his eyes at that, though after a beat, he broke into a small smile. "What, and lose the cutest air stewardess on the flight?"

"Gerry won't appreciate you talking about him like that, you know."

"Sailed right over your head and hit Sunshine, didn't it?"

"Yeah. Your aim is off," she shot back.

He shook his head at that and then took a long drink from the water bottle. "Actually, I'd feel better if you stayed. Honestly. If nothing else because it helps to focus."

"Need another candy bar?" she asked. "Or do you want to try to read my mind?"

"Ah, no." Chance shook his head. "I know that's hard even for normal telepaths, and I'm kind of focusing on _not_ doing that right now."

"I can project, but you'd need a translator."

He shook his head. "That's alright. I'm just going to keep the door closed and drink my water." He held up the bottle with a small smile before he polished off the rest of it. "See?"

She held his gaze for just a moment then got up for another bottle for him.

"Thanks, Elin," he said very quietly.

"You're welcome," she replied, though she took a moment to look toward the cockpit to see where exactly they were time-wise and then turned her head to let Cody know where she wanted him to be when they hit the ground. "Chances are we won't have a thing to do, but … if you see that little …. _Jerk_ ... give him everything you got."

"Don't need to tell me twice," Cody promised.

"Pretty sure that goes for the whole plane," Gerry added.

Elin adjusted her sword and sat down again. "Kind of jealous of Dad right now, actually," she said quietly.

"Me too," Sying said low.

"That's what happens though when you're the bait — you get all the fun."

"I'll try it next time," Sying said with a small smirk.

She gave him a little smirk and slipped back a few rows to the seat next to Chance. "You falling asleep on me already?"

"Yeah," he said with a smirk. "Because all the yelling is really conducive to sleep."

"No one is yelling," she told him.

"It sounds like it," he admitted.

"Five minutes out and then we're going to be around the Avengers and the adults too. You gonna make it? I mean … Cap's inner most thoughts …"

He nodded but couldn't help but smirk. "I'll spill everything in a tell-all book."

"You're getting ready to face an inner monologue about freedom," she said out of the side of her mouth.

"Might be soothing. I'm sure it'll be all patriotic and not at all a series of 'this is not what I signed up for' shouts."

"No … I think that's your dad."

"Which one?" he smirked. "The shouting or the soothing patriotism?"

"Can you hear a grim locked jaw?" she asked. "Because it's that one."

He let out a breath of a laugh and very slowly tipped his head to the side. "No," he said at last. "But I can hear one overly worried and heartsick Kree."

"Oh. Clint can hear that," Elin said.

Chance nodded slowly. "Yeah," he said at last. "I can make it. Just… elbow me if I don't respond when I need to, because I'm still not clear on thoughts versus spoken word."

She watched him for a moment and then reached over and pinched him hard. "How about you look at me for a few minutes and talk about something. Anything."

He jumped at the pinch and then couldn't help but smile her way and nod. "Okay," he said slowly. "I… why don't I tell you about the new flight maneuver I learned this weekend."

She nodded and simply settled in to listen to him, not dropping her gaze in the least so that he had a solid focus as Sying got the jet to where they were supposed to be.

* * *

In the vault, Logan was alone and off in one of the far corners, partly hidden behind some of the shelving that made up the safe deposit boxes on one wall. He'd been sure to put on the black and gray uniform rather than yellow just so there was no chance he'd be spotted before he got a hold of the little punk.

His hands flexed a few times as he listened to a clock ticking down the hall outside of the closed bank vault, and when he heard a soft, muted _bamf_ outside of the heavy vault door, he allowed himself to drop down into a crouch — ready to spring as soon as they appeared.

His left hand hovered over the button on the comm that would signal to Kurt that he needed to get his fuzzy blue butt in there, and Logan did everything he could to keep from growling when Krissy and Christian did finally appear in the center of the vault. He nearly rushed out right then, but he watched silently as Krissy headed over to the clearest wall and simply slid to the floor and hugged her knees.

Christian was a solid six steps away from her as he turned to examine the wall of safe deposit boxes — and Logan waited just a hair longer before he started to growl simply to scare the living crap out of the kid an instant before he lunged for him, hitting the button on the way forward.

A second or two later, when Kurt and several bamfs appeared, Logan had already gotten Christian twisted up into knots, unaffected by the kid's powers when he was wearing gloves with his uniform. "I need a 'port somewhere less surrounded by heroes."

Kurt didn't even have to say anything before two of the bamfs had seized Logan and Christian — who screamed for just an instant before they disappeared, letting Kurt go to Krissy while they took Logan to someplace that they assured him neither Scott nor his stick would find.

Kurt didn't even wait for the smoke to clear from the teleport when they arrived in Westchester before he started to look over his daughter, brushing back her hair, cupping her face, and pulling her into what he intended to be a long hug — though he was surprised when she pulled away from him and shook her head lightly.

"Stop it," she said in barely a whisper.

Kurt's heart stopped when he saw the expression on Krissy's face, and he took a step back as she took a step further away, moving until her back hit the wall and never taking her gaze off of him as she sat down with her knees pulled up underneath her. It was clear that she was doing what she could to make sure that she could see everything and that she couldn't be surprised, but the way she looked at Kurt…

He swallowed hard but didn't make a move to approach her. He knew Rachel had said that she had been hallucinating this whole time, that she had thought she was home before, but seeing her this way… he wanted to go back and join Logan in skinning the boy responsible for it.

" _Prinzessin_ ," he said gently, but she just shook her head at him.

He let out all of his breath and watched her for a long moment, frowning at the way she flinched when the door opened and Kate came in. Kate gasped audibly when she saw how far back Krissy had moved away from Kurt.

"Krissy, honey—"

"It's not going to work, Christian," Krissy said in an incredibly tired tone.

Kate's entire expression fell as she put a hand slowly to her mouth and took a moment to reorder herself. "Kristina Elli," she said very softly, "if you go out of your way to compare me to that sorry excuse for oxygen-wasting garbage, we're going to have to have words."

Krissy frowned as she looked up at Kate and then simply shook her head and rested her chin on her knees.

Kate glanced over at Kurt before she simply sat down beside him and reached over to squeeze his hand, though her expression said that she was beyond heartbroken. "If you want to get Rachel…"

Kurt watched Krissy for a while longer before he finally nodded and squeezed her hand back before he disappeared to go get Rachel. Clearly, his little girl was going to need help to come back from this.

* * *

The junior team had only been in their positions for under twenty minutes when Scott gave the order to back off. "We've got them," he said simply. "Everyone regroup."

Elin let out a breath and turned to Chance. "Let me know when you're ready to head back. Dad won't be home for a while, and yours will be busy."

Chance nodded. "Let's get back."

She nodded to herself and turned around, though she let him set the pace.

Chance paused and turned back her way. "Honest opinion," he said slowly. "How bad am I right now? Because I don't want to screw up our friend if I go to see her."

"You're not yourself," she said. "But I think it's a safe bet that it'll be family-only for a little while anyhow."

"And then probably Sying," Chance said with a small smirk.

"I don't know. He might not be as high on the list as you think if they're looking for normal. He's going to attach himself and never let go."

"And it's been a long time coming," Chance agreed. "Kris texted me to ask for advice on where to go for Valentine's."

"Then you're probably right up there next to the family," she said. "So … drink more water, I guess."

"Yeah." He took a deep breath. "You're high up there too."

She didn't respond to that at all, though, instead making a point to navigate them away from the crowds of people at street level. It was a longer, more roundabout way of getting back to the jet, but it was much better for Chance in the long run, and he knew it.

Before they caught up with the rest of the team, he made sure to grab her arm and pull her aside. "El… thanks," he said quietly.

"No problem," she replied just as quietly.

"I'm going to fix this," he promised.

She frowned at him for a moment. "Fix what?"

"The … you … we have more important things to do than deal with my psychotic … I don't even know what to call her at this point, because I didn't even want to date her in the first place…"

"Oh," she said, frowning a little deeper. "That's … not really my business."

"Even if you weren't my best friend, you're the team leader," Chance pointed out. "And I'm on boost. You do need to know that it's not going to happen again."

She stopped and bit her lip. "Since you brought it up ... how do you want to handle this?"

He ran a hand through his hair and let out all his breath. "I'm not sure. I know I want to be able to hold my head high when I go back, so I need to make it clear I'm cutting her out and that it's because of what she was doing… I don't know. I have a lot of cleaning up to do back there."

"I'm not talking about a declaration on your love life, Summers," Elin said. "I'm talking about this and our team. Can you handle it on your own? Because, honestly, I don't want to talk to your dad about this unless I have to."

Chance nodded. "No, no, I wasn't — I was saying when I go back to Alpha Flight, I need to make it clear I wasn't part of the decision to take boost," he explained quickly. "I couldn't care less about what people think about my love life right now, but I need to make sure I can't be attacked as being the only X-Man on that team and _juicing_ my way in, El. That reflects on our team." He let out a breath. "I'll talk to Dad after he's done with the cleanup on this Christian thing."

She let her expression soften before she pointed a finger his way. "Is that a promise?"

He held a hand over his heart. "Hey, I'm not going to hang you out to dry," he swore.

She tipped her chin up and watched him for a moment. "Alright. Let's get back, then. Sying is bouncing."

Chance couldn't help but smile at that. "Of course he is. He's got his girl back."

"Uh huh. I forgot that's all that matters," she said rolling her eyes. "Think you can stand to deal with letting Sying fly home? I know how hard it is for you to be a passenger."

"You're hilarious. Do I get more drink service?"

"Only water," Elin laughed as the two of them caught up to the rest of their team.


	5. Can't Take No For An Answer

Sying was dragging his feet as he headed down the hall. He didn't necessarily have a destination in mind; he was just headed away from the room he'd just left.

Kaleb, Kari, Kade — all of them had come in to say hello to Krissy and to try to convince her that she was safe. Kade had gotten the closest out of everyone by simply curling up beside her for as long as his little boy attention span would let him — which was surprisingly long when it was his big sister.

But Sying had finally gotten a chance to see Krissy for the first time since Valentine's Day. He had known she was struggling with reality. He was totally prepared for her to ignore him or to sit back and away from him the way she had been doing to everyone else. What he wasn't prepared for was the honest fear he'd seen in her expression when she saw him or the fact that she seemed to hug her knees tighter and _cried_.

He'd left pretty fast after that, and even though Kate had assured him that it wasn't his fault, he knew that she hadn't reacted that way to any of her family members.

Which was how he found himself wandering down the hall in shock.

"Hey, you need to watch where you're heading," Elin said when he very nearly walked right into her. She took a hold of his arm and pulled him along with her. "What's happened now?"

He shook his head slowly. "She's scared of me, Elin," he said quietly. "Not… not like she's scared of everyone else. Of _me_."

"That's ridiculous," she said in a scoff.

"Elin…" Sying let out a breath. "Elin, she started crying when I walked in the room."

Elin's eyes narrowed, and she swore under her breath. "We don't know what he did," she admitted quietly.

"Do you think he did it because I kissed her?" Sying asked quietly, watching Elin with wide eyes.

"No, I think he did it because he was a worthless sack of crap _snuskhummer_ ," she said with a little growl. "And he got what he deserved."

"I know the bamfs were tagging out with each other," Sying said. "And I don't know that word - and I've got a few languages under my belt; you know that."

"Dad took his ability away from him _first_ ," Elin said matter-of-factly. "And the word basically means he's a bastard."

"Fitting." Sying paused. "What… I know he's dead now but… I'm not sure if I want to know... but it might make me feel better... and I don't know…"

She turned his way and paused. "I overheard him telling Mom when he got back," Elin said. "He was _still_ mad, but Dad skinned him to _start_ with."

Sying stared at her. "...oh."

She shrugged. "Claws are sharp."

"Yeah… I just…" He swallowed. "I'm torn between terror and vindication."

She smiled softly. "It was something that he earned."

"No kidding." He reached over and squeezed her arm. "I… if you need me, I'll be in the hangar. I need to clear my head."

"Don't leave, please," she said.

"I'm just going to sit on the ceiling," he swore.

She nodded and gave him a quick hug before she headed the way that Sying had come and waited to see one of the Wagners. "What can I do to help?" she asked. "I already know going in won't work. So. Give me something."

Kari looked up at her from where she was sketching a picture of Kade that she was planning to give Krissy — or at least put in her room. "We're just trying to give her things that he wouldn't know about," she explained. "Mom even talked about Susan for a while — because he didn't really know much about her. I don't think Krissy even told him that we were reconciling."

"So what do you need?" Elin asked, crossing her arms over her chest. "I want to do something."

"It's really not like we have a guideline for it," Kaleb admitted. "Sometimes she reacts to something, and sometimes she doesn't. We never know."

Elin nodded. "I'm gonna head downstairs then. Whip up some food for everyone. You look like you could use it. And I know no one is leaving the suite to speak of." She paused. "But … let me know if you think of anything."

"You'll be the first to know," Kari promised. "I mean, the whole family's here anyway."

Elin let out her breath in a woosh and simply turned to head back down the hall. She had no idea what she could do to help, but she needed to do something with her hands - and she didn't feel like going down to the Danger Room. So …

She made her way down to the kitchen and started pulling out all kinds of things from the fridge and a picnic basket to hold everything she pulled together. There was a whole group up there, after all.

"You want any help?" Chance asked, leaning in the doorway where he'd just arrived.

Elin looked over her shoulder and gave him a quick once-over. "Not if you're busy."

Chance glanced down at his coat and gloves and shrugged. "I was going to go back to Canada to start handling things with, you know, damage control."

She nodded to herself and pulled a few different snacks out of the cabinet to carry over to the counter before she started building sandwiches for the Wagner family.

Chance pulled off his gloves and moved to the counter to start spreading mayonnaise and mustard, though he paused and frowned for a moment and put the knife down. "I'm going to at least try and break up with her the right way. In person," he told her suddenly.

She nodded to herself, not looking up at him. "Okay."

"I've tried before, you know," he said.

"Nope," she said, still working away. "Wasn't aware it was an issue."

He nodded slowly. "But I think it'll go better this time, since I know _why_ I couldn't think straight when I tried," he said. "But if it doesn't work this time, I'm just going to call her. Physical distance." He went back to helping her with a sigh. "I know there's all this… I have a lot of work to do with the teams, both of them, and the fallout from what she was doing, but you're my best friend and I just… I just wanted to tell you, _as my friend_ , not my team leader, that I'm about to break up with this girl that's been screwing me over, and that I kind of want to celebrate when it's over. Maybe coffee?"

She finally turned to look up at him with a raised eyebrow. "O… kay then. Sure."

"Yeah." He nodded to himself and rubbed his forehead as he stacked the sandwich with the others. "Just… wanted to let you know."

She watched him as she started packing things into the basket, though she seemed to think about it for a moment before she snapped her fingers and headed to the fridge to start digging. "Anything else on your mind, Chance?" she called out, halfway buried as she searched, only to finally resurface with a jar of Japanese pickles. "Because you sound a little confused." Elin tried to do her best and act as off the cuff as she could while she found a spot to nestle the sour pickles in the basket, then hid them with Krissy's favorite treats.

"Sorry, I'm just… I've got a headache," he said.

She stopped and looked up at him. "Anything I can do to help?"

"I don't think so," he said. "I know what it's from, and you know what it's from, and at this point, I'm just going to have to ride it out."

"And you're sure you want to ride it out right now?" she said, looking entirely unconvinced. "Maybe … maybe you should have Sying fly you. We picked you up, after all. Might be a better move if your head isn't feeling okay."

"I'm borrowing the _Cherry Bomb_ ," he admitted. "Sying overheard… he said it'd be okay."

"Overheard your big plans?" she asked, raising one eyebrow again.

"No, overheard the big freakout while I was still telepathic and high," Chance said.

"Oh, yeah. That kid's a dirty little eavesdropper," she said with a little wave.

Chance smirked. "Anyway, I asked him if I could borrow the ship. Everyone needs to be here for Krissy, and the _Cherry Bomb_ can practically fly itself if things get bad."

She let out a breath. "And you're sure you're okay?"

"I'm sure I want to get ahead of this before she starts… she's got a serious head start on me, and as much as it sucks, this could be a real PR problem for me and both of the teams."

"You know, if you need back up, Mac adores me," she said with a little smirk.

"If I need backup, you're my first call," he promised before he pulled his gloves back on. "But I kind of want to tell Mac myself. He's the one that got me on the team. I owe it to him to let him know what he's about to face."

"I won't breathe a word," Elin promised, crossing her heart.

He smiled and wrapped her up in a quick hug. "I'll be back before you know it," he swore.

She gave him half of a smile before she picked up the picnic basket. "Good luck. I'm going to go bring this upstairs. Because that's apparently my job right now."

"Let me know if it works!" he called out over his shoulder as he left.

Elin shook her head and let out a breath before she headed toward the stairs and straight to the Wagners' suite to knock gently. "I brought a picnic," she called out quietly. "Everything but the checkered blanket."

"How novel," Kate said with a small smile as she waved Elin inside.

"Yeah, I heard about your picnics," Elin said. "And I am not bringing this up to get mentally scarred, thanks."

Kate's smile widened a little bit and then tipped her head toward the room where Kurt was still sitting by Krissy. "She'll eat it if you bring it in," she said.

"I brought enough for everyone," Elin replied. "I know you guys haven't bothered to feed yourselves. Annie is wringing her hands raw."

"She would be anyway," Kate pointed out, then kissed Elin's cheek. "But thank you."

Elin couldn't really pull together a smile as she headed toward the room where Kurt and Krissy were tucked away. "Thought you might be hungry," she said when she got into the room.

Kurt looked up at Elin with a small smile. "Thank you, _schatzi_ ," he said as he waved her in and Krissy watched the whole interaction wordlessly. Kurt was sitting closer to Krissy than he had been able to get before, but to Elin, there was still so much distance it was hard to reconcile the image of what she was seeing _now_ versus the overly-emotional and often-clingy Wagners she knew.

"I tried to pick out all of your favorites," Elin said, barely glancing Kurt's way.

Krissy didn't drop Elin's gaze for a long time before she let out a sigh and nodded and looked in the picnic basket to start pulling things out, while Elin slipped down to the floor, leaning against the wall as she watched her.

Krissy didn't really react much at first, but when she saw the pickles in the basket, she stopped outright and looked up at Elin, blinking a few times. "You're not funny," she said very, very quietly.

Elin smirked at her. "I don't know what you're talking about," Elin said. "I brought those back from Japan just because of how much _you loved them._ "

Krissy narrowed her eyes at that - and Kurt nearby had gone completely still as he watched the girls interacting with his lips slightly parted. "I hate those," she said.

Elin bit her lip and shrugged her shoulders up to her ears. "Well. I love you. So I brought you pickles."

Krissy nodded a bit to herself and pulled her sandwich out to lean back with it. "If this is a trick, I'll give you this - it's the best one yet," she muttered.

"It's not a trick, but I am the best one here," Elin said before she stood up.

Kurt didn't let her get to the door, however, before he was sure to grab her and wrap her up in a hug. "Thank you."

"Make sure you eat something too," Elin said as she hugged him back. "There's enough here even if Krissy hogs all the pickles."

* * *

For the better part of the flight out to Canada, Chance was feeling alright, except for the headache that just seemed to be growing the longer he was flying, as well as the building frustration when he knew _exactly_ why he had the headache he did. His body was craving the drugs he didn't even know Jamie had been giving him, and it was making it honestly hard to even concentrate on anything besides his anger and the headache.

So at first, he hadn't noticed that his hands were shaking. He had just thought that the ship was slightly touchy because of his bad mood.

But when he did notice it, it just had him mad all over again as he tightened his grip on the controls to get the shaking to stop. As long as he kept a tight grip, he had a good handle on it, but as soon as he touched down in Canada and saw how _badly_ his hands were shaking, he knew that, at this rate, he wasn't going to be fit to fly back. At all.

He took in a deep breath and held his hands out in front of himself in fists to try to get the shaking back under control before, finally, he gave up. It wasn't going to work.

He shook his head and fished in his pocket for his phone, though it took him a few tries to key in his code for as badly as he was shaking, and he had to hold both hands to the phone to keep it level with his ear when he called Elin.

"Hey, El," he said when she picked up, then bit his lip. "I… I need some help."

"Okay, what do you need me to do?" she asked immediately.

"I…" He took a deep breath. "The stuff Jamie gave me. It's screwing with my whole system. I can't get my hands to stop shaking and I just… I can't fly like this, El. I'll end up in the side of a mountain, even with the ship being as good as it is." He shook his head. "Can you meet me at my ship? I… I need a ride."

"Yeah, just tell me the when and where. I can bribe a bamf into it, considering they kind of owe me."

Chance let out a breath and nodded. "Thanks," he said. "I'll call you in half an hour, hour tops. I don't want you to have to wait for me at the ship until then." He shook his head. "Sorry to pull you away from Krissy. I just… thanks."

"No problem, _really_ ," she promised. "Not like I'm doing her any real good right now anyway."

"Thanks," Chance said. "I'll see you in half an hour, then. Meet me at the ship." He smiled a bit to himself as he hung up - since at least now he _knew_ what the holdup was with Jamie, and Elin knew too, and he honestly was looking forward to grabbing some coffee with her after this was all through.

When he got back to the school, half of him wanted to just find Jamie and drop a box of her stuff in front of her in the middle of the cafeteria and be done with it. Though his hands were shaking pretty badly, and he knew he didn't look that great, and he was pretty sure he'd end up looking like he'd had a drug-induced _freakout_ — so he had to take a step back.

Instead, he called Jamie up to let her know that he was back and that he was going out to coffee at the local cafe if she wanted to join him. That way, he didn't have to worry about driving her home and spending any more time with her than was absolutely necessary. And he wanted to do it someplace public, so that she couldn't pull what she usually did and he didn't end up waking up the next morning feeling like trash so… this was probably the best bet, right?

Jamie didn't look too entertained when she finally got to the cafe — she never did when it was something that she hadn't decided she wanted to do. But she smiled a bit when she saw him waiting for her. "I was wondering when you'd come back."

"I was kind of busy," he replied shortly, pulling out a chair at a table for her, but she shook her head with a smirk.

"No, let's go somewhere a bit more private."

"Sit in the chair, Jamie."

"Sure, but if you're that comfortable letting the entire cafe know why you came back and why you look that pale-"

"Jamie-"

"-let's talk someplace quieter, shall we?" Jamie said, the smirk widening even more as she didn't really give him an option but walked to the corner booth.

Chance let out a breath of frustration before he followed her and sat down across from her. "I know what you slipped in my coffee," he told her with a glare. "And it has to stop."

"No," she said, leaning back and shaking her head and looking pleased with herself. "You don't want me to do that. Cut yourself off now and you'll be hospitalized — and I'll make sure everyone knows why."

"And I'll make sure you never see outside a jail cell," he shot back.

"Oh please." She smirked at him. "The whole thing was signed, sealed, and delivered by the government." She leaned forward with a wicked smile. "So what you _should_ be asking me is: what can you do to keep your good name?"

He shook his head at her. "No, Jamie," he said. "I'm not going to play this game."

"Then I hope you can live with the consequences," she said without moving. "We have the drug test results and the proof that you're only on the team because of the boost. All I have to do is call up my contact, and the headline tomorrow will be that a junior X-Man couldn't even measure up to the team here without _help_."

Chance glared at her across the table as she looked even more smug. "You've been working with Horton," he said.

"Oh, please," she said, waving her hand. "You're thinking too small."

He narrowed his eyes at her and shook his head. "I'm not going to let you blackmail me," he said at last.

She shook her head lightly. "You don't really have a choice in the matter."

He narrowed his eyes even further and then got to his feet. "We're done here," he said sharply. "Come after me if you have to, but I'm not going to just bend over backward for you."

She laughed as she got to her feet as well. "That would be a change."

"Listen-"

"No, you listen to me," she said, her voice low. "You're not thinking clearly. You have an arrest record, and you've been acting erratically, and anyone with brains can tell you're not yourself right now. Who do you think they'll believe? The school liaison, who is a well respected member of the community or a strung out second rate former X-Man?"

Chance leaned forward, his hands on the table and his lips pulled back. "I don't care," he spat out. "This ends here."

She held his gaze for a long moment and then nodded. "Fine," she said. "The least you can do is walk me to my car."

"I'm not going anywhere with you," he shot back.

"What could I possibly do?" she challenged. "Or are you X-Men that scared?"

"That's not going to work," he said evenly. "I know better than anyone not to trust you. Especially not alone."

"Typical guy."

"Yeah, well, you're the one telling people what a horrible human being I am," he said.

"And you're just proving me right."

He glared at her for a long time before he spit out a quick, "Fine," and pulled on his coat. She was smirking as they walked out to her car, and he shook his head at her once they got there. "If your things aren't out of my room when I get back, I'm going to start throwing them out."

"Very gentlemanly," she shot back.

"Whatever, Jamie," he said, turning to leave — before all of a sudden, he felt the prick of something sharp in the back of his neck, and his legs gave out from underneath him. He hit the pavement hard and couldn't move his arms to catch himself.

"I did give you the easy option first," Jamie said as he heard the sound of her trunk popping and couldn't really move to do anything about it.


	6. In The Viper's Lair

Viper had known, of course, that the girl in Canada had been doing her utmost to turn good boys into something more useful and interesting — and her contacts with the Canadian government told her that she had been excelling while working for them — but once she graduated and left that ridiculous school, Viper had far better plans for her. Viper was looking ahead to the future, to her legacy, and she wanted someone to train to take over for her. Jessica had utterly abandoned sense for her Hawkeye lookalike of a son, the Bishop girl was fun to play with but too idealistic to turn without breaking her into a puppet (which was still an option should Jamie fail to live up to her standards)... and Jamie lacked Jessica's intelligence or Kate's quick mind but made up for it in a drive to succeed that Viper hoped would help her flourish once she was away from her trial period at that school.

She had not, however, been expecting the girl to contact her directly — a move that signalled that her cover had been blown entirely. And yet there hadn't been any uptick in the chatter that would indicate as much. "This better not be a false alarm," she muttered to herself as she headed out to meet the girl.

When Jamie arrived, Viper strutted down to where her adoptive daughter was getting out of the car, and already, she noticed that Jamie was antsy.

"What did you bring me, girl?" Viper said almost dismissively as she gestured toward the car. "Well?" she prompted. "You know better than to keep me waiting.

In answer, Jamie popped the trunk of the car so that Viper could see the young man in the trunk. It was clear from the awkward state of his long arms and legs that he couldn't move a muscle, and for a moment, Viper was disappointed, sure that the girl had brought her someone as inconsequential as a teenage lover — until she saw the boy's face properly.

Viper let out a moan of pleasure and bit her bottom lip as she stalked closer, her eyes dancing with delight as she leaned down to examine him for herself. "Perhaps you don't have a death wish after all. You brought me a miniature X-Man," she said in almost a purr, reaching in the trunk to move the boy's head by the chin that she took in her hand so she could see him better. He looked _just_ like his father — only younger, still growing into his own body if the gangly long legs and lingering baby fat at the cheeks were anything to go by. But the resemblance… oh, it was unmistakable, uncanny, even, right down to the solid glare that he was giving her, since he couldn't move to do anything else.

"Chance Summers," Jamie supplied, and Viper smiled that much wider. When Viper made no move but to grin down at the trapped boy, though, Jamie seemed to think that warranted an explanation. "My boyfriend."

"Oh really?" Viper chuckled without even looking her way. "Not anymore, I take it."

"I don't want him dead," Jamie said.

"Oh, no, no, no," Viper agreed as she ran the backs of her fingers down the boy's face. "No, he's far too useful for _that_." The boy watched her, trying to hold the glare, and she held his gaze as she slowly stood up and motioned to a few of her men. "I want his cell phone — with the GPS scrambled," she said. "Strip him of everything else. I _don't_ want the X-Men to come calling before I'm ready."

* * *

Elin hadn't actually expected to hear from Chance in the time he'd designated. At all. She was pretty sure that something would put a monkey wrench in his plans — something always seemed to happen when he'd _swear_ to her that he'd do something by a set time, so she wasn't overly alarmed at first. But when the time passed … and then nearly passed again, she sent him a text.

_Change your mind about a ride then?_

One way or another, that should have gotten a response of some sort. But when she got nothing but radio silence, she decided to look into it. But that wasn't going to be as simple as going down and doing it herself, since she knew that Scott was working. She'd have a hell of a time explaining why she was looking for Chance anyhow.

Elin shook her head and made her way over to where Scott was — in the War Room going over intel and running down anything he could find from what James had given him on everything Krissy had been up to. Since it seemed like it wasn't a government thing, the authorities had tasked the Avengers and the X-Men with handing over everything they'd found, and Scott was simply tying up loose ends to do exactly that when Elin knocked on the open door frame.

"I know you're busy but we have a problem, and I don't know if it's just an inconvenience or something bigger," Elin said.

Scott looked up from the intel in front of him. "What's happened?" he asked in an almost weary tone.

She shrugged one shoulder up. "Maybe nothing ... but I was supposed to hear back from Chance. He said he was going to need a ride — I was just going to grab a couple bamfs and bring him back — but he never called, and he's not answering my texts."

Scott frowned deeper. "He said he was going back to Canada to take care of a few things. I didn't know he was planning to be back that quickly."

She nodded. "He told me he was having trouble flying right."

At that, Scott gave her his full attention, the concern obvious to see. "What."

She let out a breath and held his gaze. "When we picked him up, I caught a scent. He was having major trouble focusing, but … we didn't really have a chance to talk to anyone, and by the time we were back to Westchester, he seemed to be back to himself." She took another deep breath. "He said he'd talk to you about everything himself. I didn't want to be pushy."

Scott's jaw was locked as he listened to everything Elin had to say before he let out a breath that carried a 'dammit' with it. "What scent was it, Elin?" he said flatly.

"He's on boost." She held up both hands. "But he swears that he didn't take it himself. And he wasn't lying."

Scott scrubbed a hand over his face as he got to his feet. "He told me at the beginning of the semester that the government had approached him about using it," he said. "He turned them down."

"And Jamie put it in his coffee before we picked him up," Elin said. "I gave him lots of water to try to flush it out, but I don't know how long … or … anything. And he said he was going up to talk to Mac, break it off with the girlfriend, and then he said he'd be back."

Scott looked furious for a moment before he took a breath and let it settle in his shoulders. "I'm going to trace his comm," he said. "If he hasn't responded to you, considering this girl's track record, I'm not taking any chances."

She nodded and made her way over to try and help. "That's why I'm here."

Scott didn't say much else as he ran the trace, though when it came up at the school, he just had to shake his head. "If he was there, he'd be responding," he muttered under his breath.

"Yeah, especially with the snarky message I sent. It was purposefully made to irk him," Elin said, her arms crossed.

Scott nodded and then let out a breath as he turned to Elin. "Alright," he said at last. "I'm supposed to be meeting with the precinct captain in ten minutes. I need you to bring this to your parents and ask them to please try not to start an international war before I get finished cleaning up this mess with Christian."

Elin nodded. "So … about an hour, then, right?" she said with a hint of a smile.

The corner of Scott's mouth twitched up. "I'll contact you when I'm done — and if I get any different coordinates on the comm."

She nodded. "I was thinking it might be smart to send Gerry and Sying up to get the spaceships."

"Sying and Noh," he said. "If Jamie's involved, I'm not sending Gerry."

She nodded again. "Got it. Of course." She gave him a little smile. "No international incidents. I swear."

"If you can manage it," Scott said. He raised an eyebrow her way.

"I can handle my parents," she said.

"I know you can, but if Jamie's working with the government up there on this one…" He smiled her way lightly. "I'm a little bit tired of this, Elin."

"If that's what's going on, you know Dad will argue that he'll be _ending_ an international incident."

"If that's what's going on, I won't even argue that."

"Good luck," she said before she headed for the door herself to talk to her parents.

* * *

Scott was still dealing with officials when Logan and K found their way to where the beacon on Chance's comm was pinging. It didn't take long to figure out what was happening, either. The entire area had been pepper bombed to kill off any decent scent — as evidenced by the twenty-foot circle of red pepper coating everything.

They cracked open the car, not really expecting to find him and not surprised in the least to find his comm and panic button and just about everything else Chance had on him tossed into the trunk of the car. His clothes, his holster, his DNA encoded weapons … shoes. Coat. Everything but his cell phone.

Logan tried to get a scent off of anything in the trunk, but the fact was that the pepper around him was just too overpowering to get past. He didn't have to ask K to look a little further out; she was already at the edges of the red pepper spiraling out to try and catch any kind of a familiar scent that might be lingering, but whoever had transferred the boy had done so within the radius of the pepper.

And for the first time in far too long, Logan had to report back with a dead end. "Scene's totally compromised," he said over his comm. "I can't get anything."

There was a long pause on the other end before Scott responded. "I don't have anything new for you either. The GPS on his phone is disabled, and the comm is right where you are."

"Then I'm gonna go have words with Mac," Logan decided.

"You'll get further than me."

"That's gotta be a first," Logan muttered. "We'll keep the comms on when we get there. Let me know if something changes."

* * *

"Tell me, dear," Viper said, walking with her protege and smiling to herself at the change in the dress code. Jamie cleaned up beautifully, going from a sweet little schoolgirl to a Hydra operative in a green dress that suited her well if she could live up to it. And Viper _had_ planned a similar graduation present for Jamie, promising her she could choose a subject — and ask for specific training on her chosen subject — when she started her training in earnest. This was close enough. "What made you choose this one?"

"He's full of desperation," Jamie explained with a growing smile. "That was the first thing I noticed about him. Desperate to prove himself — which is easy to manipulate."

She nodded to herself, almost absently. "And the fact that he's a young X-Man … was that part of your selection process or just a happy coincidence?"

"It was definitely an attractive challenge," Jamie admitted. "I've turned a few people for the liaison's office there, but this was something I could really… sink my teeth into." She looked proud of herself as she smiled up at Viper. "I wanted to stretch my wings, apply what you taught me."

"And yet … you mixed in dating as well," she said, shaking her head lightly.

"He has a weakness for damsels in distress," she explained.

"Yes, that angle can be an easy enough one to exploit — if you don't get too involved yourself." Viper gave Jamie a slow, appraising look. "Something I'm sure you didn't manage on your first endeavor."

"Honestly, if I hadn't stepped in when I did, he would have been dating Wolverine's daughter, and she would have put a stop to any drugs I put him on when she scented them out."

"Oh, is that so?" Viper said, perking up considerably. She had been pleased enough with a second-generation X-Man, knowing the possibilities that single fact opened to her. But a more _personal_ connection would be beneficial not only to Jamie's instruction but to a longstanding injustice Viper planned to correct. "That makes things a bit more interesting."

Jamie smiled at that. "He's absolutely in _love_ with her."

"And the girl?"

"Hard to read," Jamie admitted. "But from what I gleaned from their friends… yes, I think so."

The very corner of Viper's mouth tugged into a calculated smile — positively tickled with the turn of events. "Far more useful than I'd originally thought."

Jamie looked pleased with herself the more Viper's movements seemed to smooth and slide from one gesture to another. "He's stubborn," she warned. "I've had to do everything the hard way… slipping it to him and wiping his mind when he gets suspicious…."

"There is a certain bit of fun in that," Viper said. "It's a skill you'd need to perfect anyhow."

Jamie paused, then smiled and nodded. "Yes, well, personally, I think he got it from Wolverine. He was trained by him, you know."

"Oh … I hadn't expected a young Summers to have that kind of an education…" Although Viper wasn't showing her emotions nearly as obviously as Jamie was, every little piece of information Jamie dropped her was only cementing Viper's plans in her mind. Her _full_ plans for Jamie's graduation could wait; Viper had bigger fish.

Jamie waved her hand. "He doesn't have powers. He asked to learn martial arts. He's very proud." She said the last part with a sneer.

"And I'm sure he's not the only one proud of those accomplishments," Viper purred. "They get so attached."

Jamie nodded. "I know the others his age and his younger siblings — all of them have learned at some point or another."

But Viper dismissed Jamie's thought in a flash as the tone in her voice shifted to one much more flat and uninterested. "I don't care about them."

"But you'll help me with this one?" Jamie asked, almost hopefully.

Viper paused for an instant - close enough to her personal guard that he was the only one to see the flash in her eyes as she decided how to answer her protege. The two of them shared a look and Viper spoke in a slow meter. "Once he's outlived his usefulness to me, we can discuss how to proceed," Viper said. They stopped outside of the lab, where Viper had already arranged for Jamie's little boyfriend to be brought. "You will tell me everything you know about him. His hopes and dreams, weaknesses and fears. If you want a _proper_ education, even at such short notice, I need details. Personal details. I want to know what makes his little heart soar and what his deepest, darkest desires are." She held Jamie's gaze for a long moment and let her voice drop to a mere whisper. "If you can't tell me all I want to know, then you haven't done your job properly to prepare for _anything_ I can teach you. And that would be a waste of my time." She stepped back one pace. "You don't want to waste my time, do you?"

Jamie shook her head, glancing at the door every few minutes as she wracked her mind for anything she could use. Viper refused to let her into the lab until she was satisfied with Jamie's answers, though, so Jamie kept trying to give her more — not just his insecurities about the teams he was on or his crush on Elin Howlett but things like his previous relationship with Krissy and the many different times Sinister had almost killed him and had only reinforced his feeling of being expendable. Finally, when she couldn't think of anything else, she watched Viper for a long moment before she tentatively said, "I want to be there this time."

"I'm sure you do. But I'll need one of my own to play with before I'll allow you to _stretch your wings_."

Jamie nodded, brushing her hair back from her face. "So, what is the plan?"

"You said you wanted to learn how to make a man suffer," Viper said as she finally removed one emerald glove and pressed her hand against the scanner for the lab door. "Watch and learn."

Chance was tied down at the hands and feet and couldn't move much, though the paralysis had worn off by then, and he turned his head in their direction when he heard their approach. There was a flicker of panic for just a moment before he settled on a glare instead, which only made Viper smile that much wider. Now that Jamie had told her about the boy's upbringing, she could absolutely see behind the expression that looked so much like his father that he was also mirroring some of Wolverine's habits. He was perfect bait.

"Kind of an extreme reaction to a breakup, Jamie, don't you think?" he said, addressing Jamie instead of Viper, though Jamie gave the glare right back to him.

"You don't get to break up with me," Jamie said. " _I_ decide when we're finished."

A flicker of an approving smile flirted with Viper's expression as she trailed her fingers over the boy's exposed shoulder and arm on her way past him. He flinched away on instinct, and she smiled.

"Okay, you've made your point," the boy said, though if he'd meant to address Jamie, he was doing a poor job of it, his gaze locked onto Viper instead as she examined her collection of poisons for the best thing to use. Finally, she found what she was looking for and smirked to herself, sure that this _particular_ poison would do what she wanted it to: break him down faster by playing on old traumas. If this had only been a graduation test for the girl, she would have dragged things out more, especially when she could see that Jamie had become _involved_ , even if she wouldn't admit it. But given his ties to her own wayward husband — and given the fact that Jamie had rushed him there and had already alerted the X-Men to their missing teenager — she would rather seize the opportunity in front of her _now_ , while the X-Men would undoubtedly have their feral teammates looking for any clues to his whereabouts. And then, Jamie could play with her little crush while Viper reined in her wayward husband.

The Summers boy couldn't stop watching her as she found what she wanted and brought it back to where he was instinctively trying to move away from her. But Viper ignored him as she looked to Jamie. "You see, my dear," she began in a patient tone as she rested one hand on the boy's arm, "the mistake so many people make is that they focus on causing pain and forget that the methods are just as important." She changed the position of her hand so that she was drawing the very tips of her fingers over the boy's skin, raising goosebumps where she went. "You want to make an impression, my dear, you make him remember your touch. You make him focus on _you_."

To illustrate her point, she produced the poison in her other hand, sure to wave it in front of the boy's face so that he could see the shine of a needle tip with the single droplet of her poison.

"Jamie…" he started to say, but when it was clear to him that Jamie was not going to be any help to him, he fell silent, watching with wide eyes as Viper brought the tip to his skin.

It only took a moment before the boy's chest was heaving as he struggled to get a breath, his eyes wide and desperate as his mouth opened and closed, and Viper leaned forward, taking his face in one hand. "Focus, dear," she said in a gentle whisper. "Shallow breaths…" She saw him struggle with a few attempts before he finally started to get it, tiny sips of air that of course were not enough to fill his lungs, but it would keep him alive and conscious. "Good boy," she said as she pushed back his hair, still trailing her fingers over his skin. He was so focused on getting every breath that he couldn't find the energy to pull back from her. And just as she'd hoped, she could already see tears in the corners of his eyes. He couldn't handle not being able to breathe."We can't have you leaving us so early, now, can we?" she asked him softly, almost sweetly.

Viper smiled up at Jamie as the young woman watched the boy struggle for air. "The effects won't last forever. The small dose I gave him will burn out of his system in, oh, fifteen minutes or so." She placed a hand on his chest and could feel the panicked heartbeat underneath her fingers, smiled, and looked up at Jamie. "Cold blades and other weapons are so _impersonal_ ," she explained before she gestured at the struggling boy. "Well? You watched. Did you learn?"

Jamie quickly picked up on the implied command and crossed the space between herself and the boy, who had already given up on his glare. It was too much effort when he had to focus on getting his breath, so there wasn't a thing he could do to hold back his terrified, pain-filled expression.

Jamie broke into a satisfied sort of smile as she took the boy's head in both of her hands, forcing it backwards so that he was looking up at her. She traced one finger over his cheek and down his jawline, and the boy closed his eyes, looking positively ill.

Viper smiled and nodded her encouragement to the girl, allowing her to discover for herself just how she could make the boy remember his suffering with her name on his lips. That was, after all, the point. Besides, Jamie so _obviously_ had allowed herself to have feelings for her target; Viper didn't mind allowing her to explore that possessive streak as long as it benefited her. The fact that it left Jamie wide open for Viper's exploitation was something that Jamie herself hadn't figured out yet. And by the time she had, the girl would have no angle to fight her at all. Not if she wanted to keep the boy alive. Jamie hadn't yet learned that opening her heart for any reason was simply a weakness to be used against her. And for as bright as she was, Viper was sure it wasn't a lesson that she'd learn quickly.

As Jamie ran her hands over the boy's shoulders and chest, Viper turned her attention to other matters. The boy's phone was filled with information, and while most of it was encrypted, she would get what she wanted soon enough.

The most immediate need, of course, was a single phone number. And after just over ten minutes, she finally got into his contacts… though she paused as she looked through the phone and a wicked thought occurred to her.

 _This bait almost sets the trap on its own._ She thought to herself, smirking down at the phone and the smiling picture of the boy and his friend that went along with it. The names were still encrypted, but a few pictures had come up in his contacts, and she was sure this method would be just as effective as her original plan. It was ridiculously simple to spot the one she wanted. Especially when the picture that went with the number was so much more _polished_ than the others. Much more flattering than the other contacts. Even if the resemblance was tragic.

The boy was starting to gasp now, deeper breaths than before that meant the poison was starting to wear off, and Viper pocketed his phone as she went to her collection for what she had in mind next.

As she picked out her next poison, the boy's gasps went silent, and she turned, frowning, to see if he had done something as inconvenient as having an adverse reaction when she hadn't even baited her trap yet, only to let out a delighted laugh when she saw that Jamie had bent down to kiss him. She didn't let him up for air until he was starting to go limp, and only then did she pull back, grinning maliciously as the boy gasped in a breath on the edge of consciousness, shaking from head to toe.

Viper smiled at Jamie as she slid up to the trapped boy. "Let him get his breath," she said, though she didn't stop the young woman from continuing to run her hands over him. "I need him breathing to claim my own prize."

"Alright," Jamie said, though she sounded put-out to have to share. Viper raised a single eyebrow Jamie's way, and the girl quickly straightened, recognizing the unspoken message. "Yes ma'am," she said quickly.

Viper took a few moments to regain her smirk, then began lazily trailing her hand through the boy's hair until his breathing started to even out. He momentarily leaned into her touch, purely because he was still semi-conscious, but the angry glare returned when he realized who was stroking his cheek with her thumb, and he jerked his head away from her — not that he got far when her fingers were in his hair and she only had to curl them to stop his movements entirely.

"In just a minute, you're going to scream for me, dear, nice and loud," Viper told him with a smile as she leaned in to whisper her instructions.

The boy was already shaking his head as much as he could with her hand in his hair before she was even finished — though that was of course what she had expected — and he managed a "no way" through his teeth before she let go of his hair and pulled his chin back and up to look at her.

She smiled delightedly as she held his gaze, his full attention on her with the way she had him so that he didn't see the second poison until it hit his veins. She saw the exact moment he felt it, his eyes going wide before he squeezed them shut and locked his jaw, trying desperately to keep in the moan that escaped all the same as the toxin did its work. "That's it, boy. Go ahead and fight it. You can't stop what comes next. But you can try, and you will fail."

Viper had seen grown men sob and scream in agony under her poison's influence; this boy wouldn't last long. And she took pleasure in making sure he knew he had no way to fight it.

She dialed the number in his phone, and it was ringing as he started to writhe, tears slipping down his cheeks past his tightly closed eyes and muffled sounds escaping past his teeth despite his best efforts. If he kept this up long enough, he was going to break a tooth or worse, Viper knew.

She held the phone by the boy's head on speakerphone and smiled, waiting for him to react as the girl on the other end answered. "Chance? What happened? Where are you?"

Chance's eyes flew open at the familiar voice as Elin Howlett called his name again when he didn't — couldn't — answer her. He squeezed his eyes shut harder, trying desperately to quell what he knew was coming, but after several long seconds of nothing but whimpers and Viper whispering in his ear for him to ' _let it go'_ and to 'say hello', finally, a sound somewhere between a scream and a sob broke loose, and as soon as his lips parted, the screaming started in earnest.

Viper patted his cheek with a whispered, "Good boy," before she put the phone up to her ear, her free hand in his hair again in what would have been a gentle gesture with anyone else. "Get your father. Tell him I want a word with him," she told the girl on the other side, clearly, over the sound of the boy's agony.


	7. Take A Chance

"What's the story, Mac? Where's little Summers, and who the hell's drugging him?" Logan asked in a rumbling growl.

Mac looked up at him with a deep frown, not expecting to see him but definitely not expecting something as complex as that in place of his usual greeting. But when Mac didn't answer fast enough, Logan crossed the distance and flat out put him on the ground with his knee at the base of Mac's head. "I'm not in a real cheerful mood, and the kid is missing."

"As much as I hate to advocate," K said from the door, which really only got Mac to realize she was _watching_ the door for Logan — which was incredibly bad. "You do need to give him a chance to answer." She glanced over at Mac. "So how about you start with the first part — where is Chance?"

"I … thought he was with you guys," Mac said from the floor as Logan pushed down a little bit with his knee. "He left for the rescue mission, and I haven't seen him since. Did you get the girl back?"

"Yes," K said impatiently before Logan hit the second part of the questions both were sure Mac could answer.

"Which one of your pencil pushin' jackasses is the one that's shovin' drugs down the kid's throat?"

"Wait … what?" Mac stammered out. "We're not that desperate, alright?" But that just got a laugh out of K. "Hey — we're not! I knew they offered him, but he said he turned them down. I thought that was the end of it."

"Why was there even a start to it?" Logan asked. "I thought this was about helpin' kids. Not the same freakin' weapon-makin' jackasses usin' people up."

"It _is_ ," Mac insisted.

"Sure as hell doesn't look like it," Logan replied. "Who is your _official drug dealer_?"

"I don't _have_ one," Mac insisted hotly.

"Two then," Logan countered.

"Listen," Mac said. "All I know is Chance came back from meeting with the liaison's office hot over the offer, but that's all it was - an offer. I wasn't involved — the _team_ wasn't involved—"

"It wasn't just an offer," Logan told him. "He came to our all-hands-on-deck mission high on somethin', and he wasn't lyin' when he said he didn't take it."

"Who's drugging him - or supplying it?" K asked. "We know who was slipping it to him."

"Who?" Mac asked.

"Jamie," K said. "You know. Baby Hydra."

Mac swore through his teeth. "She hasn't had any contact with Viper-"

"That you're aware of," K said. "But then, you weren't aware they were drugging him either. So excuse me for not being too impressed."

"Look." Mac turned her way as best he could with the way Logan still had him on the floor. "All I know is Box and Horton both pissed him off, but I don't know who the supplier was. They were just the ones making the offer — and we both agreed to say screw 'em and prove plain old humans could—"

"Dad," Elin called out quietly — but in a tone that has Mac trailing off fast — and looking totally pale. "I got a call …" She held her phone out, and Logan only spared a moment to glare down at Mac.

"We're not done," Logan warned before he let Mac up and took the phone. "What the hell do you want?"

There was nothing but screams from the other end of the phone for a good long while, and Logan shifted from an angry glare Mac's way to a totally open expression as he looked over at Elin and then K. "If you want to see the boy alive, you'll come alone. You know the place." Viper had sounded perfectly smug on the line, and she was sure to let Chance's screams speak for him for a long minute before she finally simply hung up.

Logan stared at the silent phone for a long moment and didn't say a word. Most of the steam was out of his sails anyhow. "I'll be back for you, Mac," Logan said finally as he simply turned to leave, with Elin and K following him out.

They weren't quite into the air yet before Logan hit the comm for Scott. "I'm headed to Madripoor."

"You have a lead?"

"Viper has him."

There was a long and stunned silence before Scott replied. "I'll meet you there."

"No," Logan said simply. "Supposed to go alone."

"Then I won't meet you there; I'll just come myself."

"He's not going alone anyhow," K cut in. "Because that would be _stupid,_ and I wanna kill that bitch myself."

"If Viper's involved, all three of you shouldn't be there," Scott said. "Come back here; we'll take the blackbird, and I'll stock up on anything we may need before you get here."

"Be there in ten," K said. "Be ready to roll."

When they got to Westchester, the engines on the minijet weren't even entirely off before the three of them burst out of the cabin and rushed toward the blackbird. Scott was already prepped and ready to go, though he frowned when he saw Elin. "Elin, it's not a good idea to have all three of you there."

"I should have spoken up sooner to stop this, and Viper used my phone to reach out," she said. "I'm going — if nothing else, to make sure you have back up."

Scott frowned more deeply and then shook his head. "I don't have time to argue this," he said.

"No you don't," she agreed. "I'll keep out of your way."

"Fine," he said, and barely waited until the three of them were seated before he put them in the air.

Logan took the copilot chair and punched in the coordinates from memory that would take them to the warehouse district nearest the Princess Bar where Scott could find space to land. "I'm going in by myself," Logan told him. "Just to meet her demands. She'll kill him otherwise."

Scott frowned at that and then turned to K. "And you'll be following him."

"No," K said. "I'm going in by _myself_. Ignoring her stupid demands."

"Good." Scott nodded to himself.

When they landed in Madripoor, it was no surprise that there were a few ninjas waiting for them. Logan was quick to tear through them — though he didn't get rid of the previously smoke-filled black clothes, instead bringing one onto the plane. "I guess I was supposed to be captured."

But there was no way that it was going to fit either K or Scott where one was too tall and the other too short. "I've got it," Elin said, not waiting for the okay from anyone before she started to pull on the ninja outfit. "I'm just the eyes and ears once she takes his comm," she said toward Scott.

"I'll be on the other end," he promised.

"And I won't be waiting for any of that crap," K added, strapping her guns to her legs. "As soon as she's away from Chance, I'm blowing everything up."

"Let's just get him out," Scott said, shaking his head as it was obvious he liked this plan less and less.

Logan met Scott's gaze for a moment before he gave K a kiss. "I'll take care of your boy. You keep track of my girls." Before Scott could argue it, Logan headed out just ahead of K. Elin slipped out shortly after. When the second wave of ninjas attacked Logan, Elin slipped into their group to be sure she was one of them that had hands on him when he let them capture him to drag him toward Viper's hideout.

When Logan finally got to the Princess Bar, Viper was of course waiting for him, looking overly pleased about the whole thing. She was stretched out, with Chance, bound hand and foot, curled up beside her in a tight little ball with his head in her lap. He was shaking, his eyes shut, crying in a way that it didn't look like he could stop. She didn't even get up from her seat as her men brought Logan in, instead stroking Chance's hair and face as he trembled.

"I know you didn't come alone," Viper said as she traced the feathered tip of a dart between her fingers over Chance's cheek. "Tell your little plaything to come out where I can see her _leave_ or I'll kill him right here and now."

" _My wife_ isn't even in the building," Logan replied calmly.

Viper narrowed her eyes at him. "Outside it, then," she surmised. "Call her off."

"How the hell am I supposed to do that when your flying monkeys took my comm?"

"There _is_ a window. You do know how to use that."

"My _wife_ is nowhere near your crappy bar," Logan replied. "She didn't want to take the risk on the kid."

Her lips curled up slightly. "Too bad. I'll have to find some other way to deal with her later," she said before she took the dart in her hand and tossed it Logan's way — followed quickly by another two to be sure the heavy poison would do the job. "I'm sure she'll come running all the same."

"You got me. Now let him go," Logan said before the effects started to really come into play.

Viper stood slowly with a pleased sort of smile on her face as Chance slid to the floor, still shaking from whatever drug she'd given him, and she made a motion with one hand that had Jamie appearing in the doorway with a smile that was just as self-satisfied. "Jamie, darling, why don't you take your little almost-X-Man back to somewhere _softer_ ," she said without looking at the blonde making her way closer to the trembling boy. "These boys are going to have _such_ a hard night."

Logan was starting to sway as he scowled Viper's way. "That wasn't the deal."

"I said you would see him alive, and you have," Viper said, still smiling as she circled him. "And now that you have, there are other interested parties. I _could_ leave him where he is, if that's what you'd prefer."

"Might be better than bein' stuck with that half wit of a protege you've got."

"Mmm." She bent over at the waist with the smirk growing ever wider. "You've gone soft, then, to get caught by a scheme the _half wit_ came up with."

Logan let out a bark of a laugh in spite of how much ground he was losing as the venom took effect. "No way did she come up with this all on her own. She couldn't connive her way out of a paper bag without a map and someone smart enough to explain it to her." The insult was about all he could get out before he slipped to his knees, one hand out to keep himself upright.

Viper sneered at him, while Jamie simply looked insulted, nearly flabbergasted as she directed some of Viper's men to Chance with a glare that had no bite to it for how much she was knocked over by Logan's words. But Viper just strode forward to knock Logan's hand away to get him to fall the rest of the way to the ground before she crouched in front of him with a venomous expression that _did_ have bite to it.

"C'mon, Ophelia, whatsamatter? Still can't get a man without havin' to drug him up to his eyeballs, eh?" Logan said with a smirk. "Looks like she learned that pretty good at least."

"You want to know what else I've learned?" Jamie snapped Logan's way, her eyes flashing.

"Blackmail? That's another tried and true to get a man's attention," Logan muttered offhandedly. "Course, that might be too complex for you. Two steps and all. Takes plannin'."

Jamie let out a noise of pure frustration as she abandoned Chance to stalk over to where Viper and Logan were. "I want to be there," she told Viper. "Whatever you're planning, I want to be there for this guy too."

"You ain't old enough," Logan slurred. "She'll have to show you the remedial film."

Viper smirked down at him and traced the back of her hand over his face. "True."

But before much more could happen, one of the guards nearest Chance pulled back their hood and shot a single round at the wall behind where Viper's throne. Half a second later, there was a beep, and the wall blew out as Elin knelt down by Chance to cover him from the shots that were bound to come.

Viper started shouting out orders, trying to get Logan out before something else went wrong with her little plan, but she should have known that wasn't going to work as K stepped in through the rubble at a run and made a quick beeline toward Viper and Jamie. Viper sidestepped behind Jamie an instant before the little feral jumped up into a spin that ended up nailing Jamie in the side of the head and knocking her out of the way.

K had her gun at her hip, but she was mad enough that she didn't want to use _any_ weapons, instead, driving forward and pounding into Viper bare fisted as Jamie stumbled away from the snarling fist fight. Viper's arm pulled back, a dart in her hand, but there was a loud crack before she screamed as K broke her wrist and jammed her with her own dart.

The guards were firing on Elin and had even managed to get her to a point that she wasn't fighting back as much as she was just … trying to cover Chance and taking round after round.

While the guards were rushing in to peel Elin back, Viper finally managed to land a dart on K, followed by a quick, hard elbow to her nose that knocked K back — and broke Viper's elbow. The Hydra guards were moving fast, and it seemed as if the two Howlett women were all but under control as Viper in her rage ordered Jamie to start her lessons.

"You want to learn how to make them suffer?" she called out. "Think bigger than just the boy himself."

Jamie's eyes widened as she nodded her understanding and then sneered toward the guards around Elin. "I need a sword," she decided, taking one from the nearest ninja so that she could simply stab Elin — too angry to think of anything more elegant when she wasn't familiar enough with Viper's poisons to know which ones would work on healers.

Elin glared at her, growling low as Jamie approached.

"Oh please," Jamie said, taking the sword in her hands with a smirk before she ran it into Elin's side.

Elin let out a gasp that was clearly more pain than anything else — but that just pushed a few buttons Viper wasn't planning on as both of Elin's parents let out snarls. While K pulled to get her arms back, Logan simply kicked out — knocking Viper flat to his level where he could at least reach her.

She tried to scramble away, but Logan pulled her closer and wrapped one hand around her throat, perfectly content to just crush the life out of her if that's what it had to be. She was struggling, scrambling to pull away or get him to lighten his grip - when one of the guards unloaded his side arm on Logan — releasing Viper, but sending K into absolute orbit.

Two echoed _snikts_ later, the guards that had been holding K were screaming and bleeding and she was making the play for Viper … while the guards holding Elin suddenly abandoned that order to try and protect their mistress.

"You're on your own," one of the guards shouted to Jamie as he rushed toward the center of the room, though she was smirking when she saw that Elin was still bleeding, sure that she could handle one injured girl.

"I hoped you'd come," Jamie sneered. "It will almost be a shame to kill you. I'd have loved to see your reaction to him wearing green."

"Like you could pull off either," Elin replied. "Dad was right. You really are stupider than you look. Which is saying something."

Jamie glared at her as she balled her hands into fists. "Smart enough to fly under your radar for two years."

"You mean my radar that wasn't anywhere near you?" Elin said, frowning. "Please. Not even the Canadians care what happens in Canada."

"Then think how few people will care when you're gone," Jamie replied evenly as she stepped forward, the blade still in hand.

"At least one more than when you're gone," Elin countered. "But you're not good enough to kill me."

With a little cry, Jamie lunged forward, but Elin was having no part of that. Before Jamie could even take another stab at her, she let out a snarl that was close to what her mother had done moments before — and she charged. Much like her mother, Elin didn't use her claws — at first. Not when it was so satisfying to _hit_ the person that was ticking her off so badly. She put to use all the dirty tricks her parents taught her — even if they weren't necessary, since Jamie had no clue how to defend herself, and her piddly drug induced psychic abilities were _nowhere near_ strong enough to crack into the little feral's natural defenses, let alone those that Rachel had helped her erect.

"I always _knew_ you were jealous," Jamie spat through a mouthful of blood when her psychic attacks weren't working.

"Of you? _Never_ ," Elin snarled.

"Oh no, it was jealousy," Jamie insisted with a wicked gleam. "What was it like? I _know_ you had to know what was happening. Not just the drugs." Her smile widened. "You could smell it, couldn't you? His _attraction_. Chance told me _all_ about your little sensitivities."

"Did he?" Elin asked almost sweetly before she popped one claw through Jamie's shoulder joint. "What was it like having him talk about me and Krissy when he was supposed to be smitten with you? Because … he didn't talk about you to us. _At all_." The last part she said at a whisper.

Jamie was panting and whimpering in pain by that point, and her mascara was running. "There wasn't much _talking_ ," she whispered out with a satisfied sneer.

"No, I suppose drugging him up takes out all the pesky _talk_ ," Elin replied. "Should have tipped you off, though. His friends rate higher on subject matter than his 'girlfriend'."

Jamie sneered up at her. "Face it," she whispered. "You practically gift-wrapped him for me, the way you've been _ignoring_ him. And unlike you, I'm not going to let him get away."

"And you're as deaf as you are stupid. I don't throw myself at boys. And you're not going to have anything to do with him ever again," Elin told her as the growl laced her voice. "I'm not letting you get away with what you've done to hurt him already. He's free to do as he wants, and that includes dating idiot blondes. But you don't get to _control_ him. He told you he wanted out. I know he did. Consent is an issue I take _very_ seriously."

Elin cracked Jamie in the face a few more times and stepped back for a moment, her hands clenched into fists — but then she saw for just a flash that the girl was reaching for something at her side, and she didn't need prompting to know that it was going to be bad. She darted back to the little blonde and sent her claws up through Jamie's chin at the end of a punch — dropping her on the spot before she dropped to the ground herself, shaking at her own actions.

The guards didn't even seem to notice Jamie or Elin, still trying to find a way to save their employer, who was still getting pounded. Whatever darts Viper had on her had found their way into whichever men thought they'd try to get K off of her, and when one of her lieutenants finally had a full platoon's worth of men with their weapons trained on her, the real standoff began.

"Release Madame Hydra or we'll shoot you down," the lieutenant said, his battalion's guns pointed at K. "Throw us your weapon." It wasn't until then that K even realized how nervous they were about the gun at her side. She was sitting on Viper's waist, her wrists under K's knees, and she paused just long enough to look around the room. Several men were aiming at Logan, and more were trained onto Elin and Chance.

K took the gun off of her hip and held it up next to her head, pointed skyward. "I think you have it backwards," K replied. "Get your guns off my husband and my kids, or I'll take her head clean off and kick a field goal with it." She locked gazes with one of the men aiming at Logan and started to growl. "If _one_ round goes off, everyone wearing green in this room is going to die."

There was nothing but silence for a few long moments before the lieutenant sneered then squeezed off a round, hitting K square in the chest. With one smooth fluid motion, she levelled the gun in her hand toward his groin and fired off three explosive rounds before spacing them out — hitting the guys that were aiming for Logan and the kids first as her free hand pulled loose a long blade in her boot. She didn't even look at Viper as she plunged the blade downward and it found its way through the center of Viper's chest — and pinned her to the ground.

Elin covered her eyes with her arm as her mother took aim on the guard moving toward her, shielding her eyes from the explosion as K went to work — though the kids didn't see the damage after the ringing _snikt_ echoed in the air. Viper was in bad shape, and her men that weren't already bleeding badly themselves or on fire had no good plan to get her out of there without removing the blade that was going through her heart. It was a no-win situation for her.

While K cleared out the room in a silent, speedy rage, Elin started to get her wits about her again, and she turned to check on Chance. "Can you stand?" she asked as K worked her way through the last few screaming, panicking guards. She cut the ropes that were binding him and tried to check his pulse, which was racing.

He nodded very slowly and seemed to be watching her wide-eyed. He was still shaking as she helped him stand as he muttered a very soft 'sorry' through his teeth when he stumbled a step.

"Shut up," she said, shaking her head. "We need to get you back to Dr. Blue or Tyler. You don't need to apologize when you're being _drugged or poisoned._ "

When the two of them got to their feet, Elin watched as her parents tried to do the same, though Logan wasn't responding nearly as well as Chance. "We'll follow you," K promised as she retrieved her blade — determined not to let Viper have any hope of getting out alive — though she was having trouble moving Logan with as out of it as he was. Where Chance had a rapid pulse, Logan's was going far too slow, and he was bleeding from his nose, though he hadn't been struck at all.

Elin led the way with Chance leaning on her heavily, though they made enough headway on the adults behind them that she was actually able to get out of K's earshot — which was her cue to let Scott know that they needed an extraction.

They were halfway to the jet when Scott caught up to them, and for as concerned as he'd looked on the flight out, it was worse up close when he saw that Chance was still shaking and clearly still drugged. It was a miracle he even noticed that Logan and K weren't there as he rushed over to check on Chance himself, doing the same things Elin had done — checking his pulse and then letting out a breath of relief that he was at least out of there.

"Where are your parents?" he asked Elin as he checked Chance's eyes, frowning when he saw that Chance was having a hard time focusing.

"Behind us," Elin said. "Dad got a really heavy dose and got shot up. Mom's trying to drag him out. She got shot too. He's not responding."

Scott frowned, looking between Elin and Chance. It was obvious that he wanted to get his son back to the jet _now_ and get him to Hank, but he knew from experience that it could be hard to drag Logan out of a mess like that. Finally, slowly, he nodded to Elin. "You've got him?" he asked her as he took a slight step back.

"Yeah, I got him," she said with a nod.

Scott frowned once more before he nodded to himself and then took off at a run down the way Elin and Chance had come to catch up to Logan and K.

Once Elin had Chance in the jet — and it had taken a little doing to get the job done when he was almost dead weight, exhausted from the short walk — she got him into one of the seats that reclined all the way back. "I'm going to get an IV and some saline," she warned him. "But I'm _not_ drugging you."

He just nodded at her with half of a smile, even though he was still shaking pretty badly. "Okay," he croaked out.

She took the time to wash her hands before she grabbed the supplies and a couple of blankets, and when she got back to the seat next to him, she sat down sideways in it, facing him as she began to clean up his arm. "I'm not waiting for mom, you need this now."

He watched her, holding her breath as she worked, before he nodded again. "Thanks," he said quietly, even though he was flinching through every step of the IV process.

"Before you pass out," Elin said, pulling her comm out and flipping it on, "tell Dr. Blue how you feel. I'm sure Dad could smell all the compounds, but …"

"Yeah," he said, still unable to fully focus on her, though the blankets were helping with the shaking by then as she got him settled. He leaned his head back and closed his eyes. "I dunno, El. I can't… concentrate."

"Try not to fall asleep on me, alright?" she said, resting a hand on his chest.

"That'd be bad?" he asked with half a smirk, and he peeked one eye open.

"Your dad would probably have a coronary, and I don't think Mom would be in a great mood having to try to doctor all _three_ of you high-maintenance boys."

"Sorry."

She tutted at him. "Think of your poor father. The backseat flying would be _terrible._ "

He shook his head lightly at her. "I'm sorry," he said again.

"Is that a symptom?" Elin asked. "Or is that a side effect of having been in Canada for so long?"

He couldn't help but laugh and then winced. "Don't do that," he said, though he was smiling at her.

"Do what?" she asked, smirking just the slightest bit. "Point out the obvious?"

"Make me laugh when my chest is sore," he said.

"Well," Elin said, leaning the seat back as far as it would go, now that he was all set up. "If you'd _told_ me your chest hurt, then I wouldn't make you laugh."

He kept smiling at her for that one. "I… forgot it was sore until I laughed," he admitted with a slightly sheepish look.

"So … sore chest and impaired memory," Elin said. "Along with a guilty complex from being in Canada for too long." She leaned forward and dropped her tone down to a whisper. "And I'm _absolutely_ blaming Canada for that."

He chuckled and then winced again. "Seriously, El."

"Alright. I'll leave you alone. Or … I'll keep an eye on you at least until your dad gets back."

"Please stay," he said, shaking his head lightly.

"Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere," she said, sitting back for a moment and resting her hand on his forearm. "There is nothing to do for a girl like me in Madripoor."

He had started to relax and close his eyes when the adults in the group arrived, with K and Scott carrying a completely unconscious Logan.

"Thanks, Scott; I've got him from here," K promised, once they had Logan flat on the floor near Chance and Elin. She barely looked up at either of them before she dove into her work, setting up an IV for Logan and hooking up some monitors.

Scott nodded before he switched gears to check on Elin and Chance, still with a serious glare on, though he paused when he saw the IV. "How is he?"

"I got him fluids right away," Elin said. "Monitor's keeping track and sending everything to Dr. McCoy."

Scott put a hand on Elin's shoulder before he sat down next to her and Chance. "Thanks, Elin," he said, giving her shoulder a squeeze before he reached over to put a hand on Chance's forehead and push back his hair and check his pulse one more time.

Chance's eyes opened wide, and he looked outright panicked before he saw Scott. "Hey, Dad," he said, though his voice was tight.

"Hey," Scott said in a wavering voice. "You alright?"

"Elin's got me all set up, Dad," he promised.

Scott nodded lightly. "Yeah, I see that," he said before he squeezed Chance's arm again. "I'm just glad you're back."

"I can get you some water," Elin said before she slipped away from the two of them to leave them alone.

And nearby, once Logan was even halfway stabilized, K looked up at Scott from the aisle and gave him a completely serious look. "Keep an ear open over here, please."

Scott glanced down at K and then to Logan and nodded, matching her serious expression. "And I'll keep an eye out too," he promised before he turned back to Chance, holding onto his son's hand and looking still upset over the whole thing.

She gave Logan a kiss on the forehead and spared Elin a little smirk as she slipped down to the aisle to sit with her father, though it was forced as K headed up to the cockpit, rattling off to Hank on the comm all of what she smelled in both compounds. "I have the darts from Logan, but I didn't really have the time to look around for whatever they hit Chance with. Both are on monitors; Chance is at least responding," K told him as she started flipping switches and firing up the engines. She turned to look over her shoulder at Scott. "If no one has any objections, I'm going high altitude to get this over _fast._ "

"Pour it on," Scott said without looking up. "The faster we get them to Hank, the better."

"That's what I was thinking," she agreed, though her nerves were showing just a bit at the overly steep angle of climb she took once they were airborne.


	8. A Long Road Ahead

Once they were all unloaded in the lab, the real work began. Hank was putting leads on the two unconscious members of the team (Chance has, in fact, fallen unconscious on the flight over) after he'd intubated both of them while Tyler drew blood and tried to get a solid feel for what exactly had been done.

K was rattling off what she knew to be in the compound that Logan had been hit with, and it was of real concern, since the man hadn't seemed to have made a bit of progress since he'd lost consciousness in Madripoor.

So while Hank was trying to determine the best method to help Logan, Tyler got started on clearing out Chance's system of the poisons. "I can't … do anything about the chemicals," Tyler said, rushing to move Chance to the dialysis machine. "If I can get the toxins out, I can fix the damage, though." He shook his head, looking grim as he started the lines, though he had the forethought to close the draping around the bed so that neither Scott nor Annie — who had come rushing down as soon as she heard that they were back with Chance — could see the size of the needle he was using.

Even though Chance was groggy, Tyler took care to strap him down tightly — just in case. "He probably won't come around until well after the treatment is over," Tyler said, mostly to Scott. "But just in case, I don't want him panicking and pulling at this rig."

Scott nodded after he saw the setup — though he appreciated the chairs that Tyler was already bringing over so he and Annie could stay close. As the two worried parents took a seat and held their breath, Tyler set up the monitors so that he could see them from the other side of the lab as he ran the blood tests to determine what, if anything, would be a good antidote to the toxins in his system.

Meanwhile, Hank was rushing just as quickly as Tyler had been, since it was clear that Logan needed the same kind of treatment. "He's going to be so pleasant when he wakes up," Hank said, looking as if he hated every second of setting Logan up — and tying him down a lot tighter than what Tyler had done for Chance, with several more straps to make sure Logan wouldn't break something loose.

K had taken up a position next to him to help, and between the two of them, and Tyler of course, both Chance and Logan were well on their way to a forced detox of whatever Viper had done to them.

Shortly into the treatment, though, Tyler's head popped up from the printout he had of Chance's blood. He was frowning hard as he drew in a breath and held it for a moment. "We … are going to need something to counter one of these … or the withdrawals are going to give him seizures," he muttered, bringing the sheet to Hank.

The two doctors looked it over, and Hank let out a sound of pure disbelief. "Are you sure this is right? Perhaps a second test to double check."

"This _is_ the second test. It came back that way from the first too," Tyler told him, and the two physicians shared a glance.

"I'll get the counteractive measures," Hank said, though now his jaw was locked, and he looked a lot more pensive than he had before, which was saying something. When he returned to Chance's side with the medications in hand, he tried hard to ignore the questioning look he was getting from both Annie and Scott as he administered the drug to the saline drip.

But Annie couldn't wait any longer for answers when her son was still unconscious. "Now what?" she asked, clearly worried.

"Just something that we weren't expecting to find," Hank told her. "It will take some time to clear out entirely, but he should be over this speed bump in a few weeks."

"What 'speed bump'?" Scott asked with a frown.

"It … is an addictive compound that has been rising in prevalence in recent years," Hank said. "With the sympathizing crowd, I'm afraid."

Scott took a deep breath when he heard it and nodded. "Right," he said, looking angry at the reminder of what else had been done to his son besides just the kidnapping, though Annie looked shocked as she looked between Scott and Hank.

"What?" she breathed out.

On seeing Annie's reaction, and the fact that Scott's jaw looked like it would never come unlocked, Elin spoke up. "He didn't know about it," she said suddenly. "Not until the mission we ran to get Krissy anyhow. She was doping him with boost."

Annie spun to face Elin, both eyebrows raised high. "Who?"

"Jamie," Elin replied, holding her gaze. "She was slipping it to him, and she didn't want him to go with us to get Krissy, so she overdosed him, apparently — dropped it in his coffee before he left. She's … dead. By the way. So you know." She looked over at Scott sheepishly. "I… forgot to tell you that part."

Annie looked horrified. "I didn't know about this," she whispered almost too quietly for anyone to catch.

"He said he was going to break up with her and come home … he was mad when I told him what I smelled," Elin said, making an effort to come clean. "He swore up and down he didn't know."

Scott finally turned his attention from Elin to Annie and gently held his wife up by her elbow. "We're already working on it," he told her in a low whisper.

Annie turned his way and then looked angry. "Someone was drugging my baby-"

"Annie, I know," Scott said, shaking his head, though she just glared at him before she let her shoulders drop and turned her attention back to Chance.

Elin watched the whole scene and then looked to the ground and seemed to remember the shape her uniform was in — pretty full of bullet holes, slashes, and a lot of her own blood. She looked toward her parents and bit her lip before she looked back up at Scott. "Can I leave for a few minutes, please?"

Scott looked surprised at the question — or the way it was phrased — before he nodded. "Yeah, of course. I'm just… going to step out and make a call. Hank will let us both know if things change with either of them."

Elin nodded and kept her gaze to the floor as she rushed out of the lab toward the locker room. She had a change of clothes there at least, and now that there really wasn't anything she could do for either her father or Chance, she wanted to scrub off the blood and dirt.

Scott, meanwhile, stepped out into the hall with his cell phone and called up Mac Hudson, barely waiting for him to pick up on the other end before he said, "Tell me you've got them."

"They disappeared before I could trace them down - looks like they left shortly after Logan and K got here," Mac said. "We're looking for them, though."

"That's not good enough, Hudson."

"No kidding," Mac replied in a short tone.

"How the hell didn't you know this was happening?" Scott snapped. "For months. _Months_."

"Unlike some places, Summers, I don't actually handle everything all by myself." Mac took a breath. "I'm not a regular teacher. I don't see the kids that aren't in my mechanic's courses, and I … I was told that they offered it to kids that were underpowered when they needed a bigger reaction to learn control better. What the hell do I know about this kind of thing anyhow?"

"You could _ask_ , Mac."

"And second guess everyone's moves by a 'what would Cyclops do' frame of mind?" Mac let out a sigh. "I had to trust my people Scott. That was just my mistake for not watching the government types closer. They were from a department I didn't even know about, Scott."

Scott pinched the bridge of his nose. "That's really not a good enough excuse, Mac," he said, though at least his tone had relaxed a bit.

"Never could be," Mac said.

Scott shook his head. "I just — I'm sitting here looking at my son with a tube down his throat, and all you can tell me is they're gone and you _didn't know_."

"Scott, I didn't say we weren't still looking," Mac said as patiently as he could. "As soon as Logan took his knee off the back of my neck, I suited up and started looking. I'm still. Looking. Myself."

Scott let out a breath. "I appreciate that," he said at last. "When you find anything…"

"Scott, I'm half a mile over Vancouver right now looking for these idiots. When I find them, you'll hear about it."

Scott nodded. "Alright," he said. "I'll keep you in the loop if anything changes here." With that, he hung up and paced the hallway a couple of times before, finally, he took a deep breath and headed back into the lab to check on how things were going.

It still took a little while — and likely felt far longer to those waiting in the lab — before the dialysis was through, and Tyler was just finishing up with putting away the needles and healing up the marks they left for Chance when the young man finally started to wake up.

He was still clearly hazy, which didn't help in the least when he woke up strapped down and almost _instantly_ started to panic, eyes wide, pulling against the straps, looking absolutely terrified.

"Chance," Annie said, trying to calm him down, putting her hand on his shoulder and brushing his hair back and looking absolutely heartbroken. "It's alright. You're safe."

"Don't try to talk yet," Hank said, rushing over and trying to help calm him down. "You're home, Chance. No one will hurt you here. Try to breathe evenly. Calm down and we'll get the tube out for you."

But the sensation of waking up tied down _and_ the entirely different sensation of breathing with the tube was not helping in the least as Chance just started to panic more, his hands clenched in fists as he tried to pull against the straps holding him down and just flat-out wasn't listening.

As Annie tried to get Chance to focus, Elin got up from her seat next to her father and slipped over to try and help if she could, though she was sure that wasn't going to do much good, so she stood next to Annie with her hands hidden in the pocket of her hoodie and joined Annie in trying to talk to him. But when that clearly wasn't working, she reached out and rested a hand on his fist and tried to give him a little squeeze, working her fingers under his pinkie until she was holding his hand.

Finally, with both Elin and Annie working in tandem — Annie rubbing his shoulder and still holding onto his arm with her other hand and Elin gently squeezing his hand — Chance started to calm down, at least long enough to really look at who was there and finally recognize where he was, at which point he seemed to drop his shoulders and close his eyes.

"Chance, if you can focus, and calm down, we can remove that tube," Hank told him, resting one hand on the boy's shoulder. When Chance nodded his understanding, Hank walked him through how it was going to go, and a few moments later, Chance was coughing and trying to stop gulping down huge breaths of air.

Annie rubbed his shoulder, looking relieved as she leaned over to kiss the top of his head. "Thank you, Elin," she said quietly to the girl next to her.

"Sure," Elin replied just as quietly before she let go of Chance's hand to head back over to where she was _supposed_ to be — and to give Chance and his family some privacy.

For a long time, it was apparent no one wanted to interrupt as Annie very gently brushed Chance's hair and simply looked relieved, even if, now that Chance was awake, he still looked pale and ill, his jaw tightening every time Annie ran a hand through his hair.

Hank brought a glass of water over for Chance, knowing that he'd need something to soothe his sore throat; considering some of the medications that Viper had given him, he was sure to have a terribly sore throat for more than one reason. "Are there any other ailments that I should be made aware of?" Hank asked. "We didn't do the usual scans and checks, considering the condition you came in."

Chance frowned but shook his head lightly. "I don't… think so," he said in a raspy voice, though he still looked incredibly upset and shaky.

"Then maybe you could tell us what happened," Scott prompted with a frown.

"Jamie's been working for Viper," Chance said quietly. "I didn't know — I swear. I was trying to break up with her — and next thing I know, I can't move." He massaged his throat for a moment and tipped his head back, trying to get himself under control.

"And what about the _boost_ you were getting?" Hank asked, trying very hard to keep unemotional about it. "How long has that been an issue?"

Chance closed his eyes and let out a breath. "I swear," he said, looking more toward his dad than Hank, "I didn't know. I told them _no_ , I swear."

"That is the story we've heard already, and Mac had the same story. He's rather upset as well," Hank promised, resting his hand on Chance's arm. "But I had to ask all the same."

Chance was still shaking his head. "I didn't notice anything different. No powers. So I don't know… I don't know what the 'boost' did," he swore. "It wasn't until the mission for Krissy that I was telepathic."

Hank nodded thoughtfully. "Then going forward, you'll have to be sure to notify me of any and all symptoms and ailments you might have pop up. Not only so we can determine what this drug did for you but to monitor your withdrawal symptoms."

Chance nodded slowly and looked incredibly tired. "Yeah, alright. How long do I need to…"

"It's not going to be a very fast process, I'm afraid." Hank let out a breath and tried to level with him. "It's entirely likely that even with the extensive dialysis we had to perform to remove the toxins you were dosed with that it may take a few days for the worst of this to rear its head. You'll have to stay here until the worst has passed."

"Sorry 'bout your luck," Chance muttered with almost a smirk Hank's way.

"On the contrary, I'm tickled to have you here," Hank replied, leaning forward to smirk at him over his glasses. "Of course … sorry 'bout your luck, bud. Because there are scads more blood draws coming your way. And I'm not even a little bit sorry. Besides, you have a veteran for a roommate."

Chance looked over to where Logan was still laid out and hooked up with wires and tubes and frowned. "He okay?"

"We're not letting him go anywhere until he can show us his usual cheerful self," Hank promised. "Just try to behave and we won't let Tyler tackle you."

"I'm too tired to misbehave," Chance chuckled.

"Then we won't ban your visitors," Hank said with a little laugh.

"Like he could keep us away anyway," Annie said with a tight smile as she squeezed Chance's hand.


	9. Measures of Stubbornness

Kate and Kurt had told their kids that they shouldn't tell Krissy about what was going on down in the med lab until both Krissy's and Chance's situations were a little more stable - so for the moment, Kade was monopolizing his sister's attention with the insistence that he wanted to play a game of "Life" with her and the other two.

Krissy had the white car, because Kade had assigned it to her, because "you like boys with white hair," which got a little smirk from all of the kids. And what's more, Kade was sure to come up with little stories about everyone's cars and their family lives - which was hilarious when Kari had managed to get the "artist" job and he kept going on about how it was _so_ realistic.

He cackled delightedly when Kaleb spun a "10", since he was the police officer, and reached over to steal his $10,000 from Kaleb's money stash. "Tha-a-a-ank you!" he sang out as he patted the growing stack of yellow fake money.

"Worth it," Kaleb said with a smirk. "I passed two 'pay days' and got a LIFE tile."

"He just wants to speed his way to retirement so he can hang out with Sadie," Kade said, tapping Kaleb's blue car with a grin, since he had decided that the little pink wife was Sadie.

"Well, the way he's going, he needs to spend more time with her. One more kid and he's going to need a second car," Kari teased.

"And they all look beautiful," Kaleb said. "Dark hair and deep dimples."

"Not that he's thought about this at all," Kari laughed.

"Oh please," Kaleb said, waving his hand. "Let's be real - I'm too cute to have anything but cute kids."

"You're not even old enough to _drive_ , Kaleb," Kari said, shaking her head at him.

"Clearly, I am, since I'm married and have four children and need to have a second car," Kaleb pointed out, gesturing to the car.

"That's for pretend, though," Kade said.

"Yeah, that's why Kari is winning on an artist's salary," Kaleb said.

"She stole Krissy's doctor salary card," Kade said with his lower lip pushed out. "She's a _stealer_."

"It has to come out sometimes," Kari said, grinning quietly to herself as she spun her turn and landed on a "beauty pageant" space to collect her winnings.

"Besides," Kade said, grinning. "If this was _real_ , Krissy's car would have _lots_ of kids."

Krissy looked up at Kade at last and shook her head with a little smile before she reached out to spin the spinner for her turn. "I have two," she pointed out softly.

"And they're probably gorgeous," Kari said, grinning at her sister. "White hair…"

"We should get Kari's paints," Kade suggested. "We can paint little people on all the families."

"Let's just… let's just play this game so we can have dinner," Kaleb suggested.

"We're getting in the way of my brother's game," Kade said in a perfectly matter-of-fact tone.

"He only thinks he has game," Kari giggled.

"He-e-ey," Kaleb said, wrinkling his nose.

"Kade, it's your turn," Krissy prompted him with an ill-hidden smile.

Kade grinned up at her and nodded. "Okay!" he said before he reached over to spin, and the Wagner kids were able to tease their way through the rest of the game as their parents watched.

"This is good for them," Kate whispered to Kurt with her head on his shoulder.

"Yes, it is," Kurt said softly before he kissed the top of her head. They were both just glad to see Krissy interacting with her family, even if it was quiet and hesitant. For the next little while, they were prepared to just make sure that Krissy had her loved ones around her so she felt safe, and they'd work from there.

* * *

It wasn't until the morning after the incident with Viper, shortly after Hank had made the rounds between his two patients, and after Elin had come to him in a moment of quiet to get her bullets removed, that Logan woke up. When he did, the monitor only shifted beat for an instant and it was apparent only to K that he was awake, though when she spoke, it nearly startled Chance, who was starting to show symptoms of the drug fighting his system, getting back some of that headache from before as his hands shook, like the last time, when he'd tried to break up with Jamie.

"That … is a highly attractive game of possum, sweetheart," K muttered just before Logan finally moved his head, and a few moments later, Hank made his way over to help K let him up. The process, of course, went a lot faster and smoother for him since he wasn't outright panicking over his position, though if anyone had asked Hank, he could have told them Logan was anything but relaxed.

Logan sat up and wordlessly pulled up his sleeve so Hank could pull another round of blood, though he didn't wait to hear anything further before he started pulling on some sweats - ready to get out of the room as quickly as possible. "Everyone okay?" Logan asked at just over a whisper, though he was watching Chance from across the way.

"Usual bang up when dealing with Viper," K reported. "Two poor souls dealing with a bunch of chemicals they should have never been around. And everyone else did all the ass kicking for you. Not sorry."

"You okay?" Chance asked quietly when he saw that Logan was watching him.

Logan met his gaze for a moment, only to frown and nod his head. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"Because that sucked," he said.

Logan tipped his head to the side. "Most time around Viper is spent screaming and crying."

"So… not okay," Chance said, though he had dropped Logan's gaze down to his own hands.

"It's done, so why not put it behind you?" Logan suggested before he turned to look at K. "You get done what you set out to do?"

"Don't I always?" K asked, which seemed to be a cue for Logan to sit up further and try to get moving. With a little growl, K pushed him back into the bed and gave him a look. "All the same? You're not going anywhere until you get an official all clear this time. And I will knock you out and tie you up again if you want to fight me on it."

Logan gave her a quick growl, but instead of fighting, he pulled her over to wrap her up and hold onto her for a moment, so they could have a quiet word. It wasn't too terribly long, though, before Hank returned with his report.

"You can go, but make sure you drink _water_ this time. And eat," Hank told Logan, who was looking at K with what clearly was meant to be an 'I told you so'.

"Shut up," K said, her eyes narrowed as she looked down her nose at him. "Don't look at me in that tone of voice." She pulled him to his feet and led him out with a little wave at Chance on their way out and a promise to send help his way.

"Your roomie is best left to his own devices," Hank told Chance with a little laugh.

"Yeah," Chance said, smirking as he leaned back. "I guess it's easier to let her do that."

"He'll listen to her," Hank admitted. "Which is an incredible step up from anything I've been able to get him to do."

"Well, I'll try not to bug you so much," Chance teased.

"Nonsense," Hank said in a low rumble. "Do you have any requests? I'm sure there is a line of visitors waiting for Logan to be gone before they came by."

Chance smirked and shook his head. "Just - I dunno. Can you put the heat up?" He shrugged. "I was fine last night, but I swear the A/C in here is high."

"I'll adjust what I can," Hank told him with a warm smile before he patted his arm and checked his vitals … again. The truth of the matter was that the lab was warm; Chance was just showing signs of the after effects of the drugs.

"Thanks," Chance said as he tried to get comfortable, though he hadn't been able to get to sleep this whole time, and he doubted that was going to happen anytime soon.

* * *

Logan and K took their time getting upstairs. The toxins were long gone, but Logan had done a ton of healing and clearing his system out, and he was ready to just … _sleep_. Still, he tried not to disturb anyone in the hall as they headed to their room, even if he hadn't had a chance to fill in Kurt on how the mission to deal with Christian had ended.

"Krissy's alright, isn't she?" Logan said low as he glanced over to the Wagner's door.

"Physically?" K said, shrugging. "Seems like."

Before the two of them could duck inside, the door to the Wagners' suite opened, and Kate and Kurt poked out, headed to go get some food, though when Kurt saw Logan, he teleported the few feet to where they were as he looked his friend over.

"You look terrible, _mein Freund_."

"What else is new?" Logan said in a weary tone. "You guys alright in there?"

"Kade is directing the circus," Kate said with a small smile. "He's got all of them playing board games."

"She does best when he's around," Kurt said, though he wasn't quite smiling as much as Kate was as he took in the finer details of Logan's condition. "Rachel explained what she saw."

Logan nodded. "He paid for it," he said. "Every lie he told her and every vision he put in her head."

"I should have been there," Kurt said.

Logan shook his head seriously. "Nope. You're better off not bein' there."

"Logan, my eldest child has spoken a grand total of five sentences in the past hour," Kurt said.

"And half a dozen of your little demons tapped out because it was too hot in there," Logan pointed out. "You were where you should have been."

"And where have you been?" Kate asked, cutting in before Kurt could argue the point. "You look horrible, you know."

Logan looked to their door and tipped his head. "You want to hear about it, I'm not telling you out here."

Kate looked toward the door and then nodded. "Your place, then," she said, gesturing to their door even as Kurt teleported the short distance to slip under Logan's arm opposite K. He looked that worn.

The little group headed into the Howlett's suite and Logan didn't even try to be overly friendly before he dropped down onto his bed. "We got Chance back. He's down in the lab still."

"That bad?" Kate asked with a frown. "I thought Ty was here."

K climbed into bed with Logan to stretch out. "Ty helped, but he can't clear the drugs out of he kid's system," she explained. "And yeah. It was kinda rough."

"The drugs from Viper?"

"The ones from Viper, the boost he was on … the whole nine," Logan muttered half into his pillow.

"Wait, wait," Kate said. "I thought this was just a Viper rescue."

"No," K said. "The little Hydra brat that kidnapped Gerry learned a little bit and dragged Chance off to Madripoor. She'd been drugging him since last fall."

"They're both dead now," Logan said.

"Both…" Kurt raised an eyebrow.

"Viper and her protege." Logan yawned and looked like he was ready to pass out entirely.

"Yeah - Elin is in need of snuggles, if you see her," K said. "She had a hell of a time. In the not-fun sense of the term."

Kurt nodded lightly. "I meant to find her anyway. She was the first one to get a response from Krissy, and at the very least, Krissy is responding as though she believes she's home. We owe that to your daughter." He smirked at Logan. "She is rather brilliant."

"Well, she's not in any kind of shape to do much right now," Logan said, pausing for just long enough to take a breath. "She's healed up, too. Just shook."

"I'll speak to her - you need to rest," Kurt promised.

"Told her we'd order you guys pizza," K said. "Since she was trying to feed the crew."

"Thanks," Kate said with a smile. "I'll pick it up."

"She insisted one of 'em have pineapple for Krissy," Logan clarified.

"Oh, of course," Kate said, starting to smile despite herself. "Krissy hates pineapple on pizza. She loves it alone, but on pizza?"

Logan was smiling to himself. "She'll irritate her into being back to normal."

"That's what best friends do," Kate agreed before she made a point to reach over and squeeze Logan's arm. "Go ahead and sleep - you need to stop looking like that."

"Then I guess I'm not waking up again," Logan grumbled before he pulled K closer with one arm. "Hit the lights on the way out."

Kate and Kurt smiled at that as they headed out and then split off as Kate went to get some drinks and paper plates for the pizza and Kurt went looking for Elin. It was a Monday, so she might have been in class if she was trying to get back into a normal schedule, though he would encourage her to take the day off if she was - she needed time to heal not just physically.

When he did find her, she was out in the barn, covering things while K was with Logan, and he teleported over to help her.

"How are you feeling, _schatzi_?"

"I'm fine, I guess," Elin said with a shrug. "How's Krissy?"

"Playing board games and allowing her youngest brother to direct everything," Kurt said with a small smile.

"So closer to normal then," Elin said.

Kurt nodded and then teleported right to her and wrapped her up in a hug before he pressed a kiss to her forehead. "Thanks to your help, Elin."

"It's been a long weekend," she said, snuggling in.

"It truly has," he agreed with a sigh. He rested his chin on her head as he wrapped her up tightly. "But I would be remiss if I didn't thank you. It was the pickles that tipped the scales, I believe." He let out a light laugh. "Such a little thing. My genius goddaughter."

"Love you too," she said before she looked up at him properly. "I can't do much, and she didn't look ready to try to talk to me … so I'll just … do things like that for now. Sorry. I don't know what else to do."

"It's exactly perfect, and I can't thank you enough," Kurt assured her and kissed her forehead again. "I'm sure she will be ready to talk to you the way she was glaring at the pickles - it will only be a matter of time."

"She's not going to feel like herself until she yells at me for something," Elin pointed out.

"And you'll be pleased as punch when she does," Kurt said with a smile.

"So will you," she said, returning the smile. "I'm a little early on the chores, but I am still a little worn out, so I thought early was better than late, right?"

Kurt nodded and then tipped his head down to catch her gaze. "And how are you feeling? Logan mentioned that you had been involved in rescuing Chance."

"I dressed up like a ninja and got stabbed and shot," she said, shrugging. "I'm tired. And sore."

"Yes, I'm sure," Kurt said.

"And I killed Jamie …"

Kurt's eyebrows rose, and he pulled Elin with him to sit on the nearest hay bale. "Tell me about what happened," he said. "Please."

"She was being terrible, and she'd already stuck a sword in me." Elin took a breath, and it all came out in a rush. "I didn't even think about it. It just happened."

Kurt pulled Elin into another long hug, not saying anything for a while until he was sure she was solidly snuggled in. "Elin," he said at last, "in the past two days, we've seen exactly when some rules should be broken."

"I know. I just … wasn't expecting it. And I wasn't planning to do it at all."

"Did she deserve it?" Kurt asked her quietly.

"She was using Viper as a life model," Elin pointed out.

"Yes, but I want to hear what it was that made you cross that line," Kurt said. "Because that is important."

"She was going to try to kill me, and she wanted to be there when Viper killed Dad," Elin said. "And she said she was going to turn Chance into a Hydra creep. So … yes."

Kurt nodded gently. "So there was a threat to your life, your father's, and Chance's mind… that is more than ample reason. One alone would be ample reason," he assured her.

"I just don't know that any one of those things could have actually _happened_ ," Elin said.

Kurt took a deep breath. "Yes," he said. "They could have. Viper knows how to kill your father and members of your family, and from what I understand, she was already twisting Chance in that direction. Yes. They could have."

"Yeah, but … Mom was kind of feeding Viper her fist."

Kurt smiled lightly. "Would it make you feel better if we were to ask Wiccan what would happen had you spared Jamie?"

"No, no, that's okay," Elin said. "I'm not sorry about it."

"Nor should you be," Kurt said. He smiled at her. "Just as I'm not sorry that your father killed Christian or that your mother killed Viper. There are some people that the world is better off without."

Elin nodded at that but didn't really respond to him beyond that.

"You're welcome to join us for dinner, _schatzi_ ," Kurt said after a long moment of silence and hugging.

"Maybe I will," she said quietly.

"Krissy needs the chance to throw a pickle jar at you," Kurt teased.

"I'm slow enough she might just hit me," Elin said.

"You're both having an off day," Kurt said before he kissed her forehead again. "My beautiful girls."

* * *

When Kurt and Elin got up to the Wagners' suite, they were only about a minute behind the pizza, so the kids were all grabbing slices and soda cans.

"Elin!" Kate beamed at her when she saw her and wrapped her up in a hug. "What's your pleasure - pineapple, pepperoni, ultimate… we've got one just-cheese for picky little Kade over here…"

"Picky little Kade flavor, please," Elin said.

Kate laughed at that and handed Elin a plate with a couple slices of cheese before she grabbed some ultimate for herself and sat down with Kurt, picking off the olives to throw at a bamf's forehead just to mess with him and get him to play with her.

Elin took a seat by Kari, trying to give Krissy her space but kind of enjoying the hum of activity going on around them. The group settled in quickly to eat, but it wasn't long before Krissy leaned over and looked at Elin with one eyebrow raised. "You order the pizza?" she asked.

"I did," Elin said with a straight face. "Did they put the pineapple in the shape of a 'K' like I asked?"

"You're not funny," Krissy said, shaking her head.

"Yes. I am. And you know it."

"You are picking the grossest stuff on _purpose_."

Elin leaned closer to her. "Yep. Until you stand up for yourself. And tomorrow morning? I'm bringing you eggs benedict. With smoked salmon."

Krissy narrowed her eyes at her. "You're. Not. Funny."

"Runny eggs, then," she offered. "Or Irish oatmeal. Your call. Oh look! I'm taking requests."

Kari had backed up and 'ported away to get out of the middle of the conversation by then so that Krissy could glare at Elin with her arms crossed as the two girls squared their shoulders up to one another. "No."

"No? How about Moira's awful stone ground scones? I'll bet you miss them terribly."

"How about pancakes or something _normal_ people eat?"

"Who's this 'normal' you're talking about?" Elin asked with her nose scrunched up. "Normal for who?"

"For us," Krissy said. "And you can just… just… _stop_ with the stupid food, because it's not funny!"

Elin crossed her arms and met Krissy's gaze before a smirk pulled at the corner of her mouth. "Fine. I won't send up any gravlax."

Krissy let out a little noise and simply threw her plate of pizza at Elin, clearly aiming to hit her square in the face with the cheesy side - though she froze as soon as she did it and looked wide-eyed.

Elin had managed to avoid a solid hit and had simply shifted to cleaning up. "Grumpy Elfling."

"I wanted to see you get hit in the face," Kade said, grinning up at Elin - seeing as Krissy had fallen back into silence and had backed up a bit.

Elin turned to him with a fake expression of shock. "You little imp! And here I thought you'd want a kiss."

"No-o-o-o-o," Kade said, shaking his head with a grin. "You got me confused with my brother!"

"So I can't kiss you?" Elin asked, going right to playing with Kade as she set the thrown pizza aside. "It's because I'm the ugly one, isn't it?"

Kade looked incredibly put-upon. "Okay, you can kiss me if you _gotta_."

"I gotta." Elin pulled him into a bear hug and simply peppered his face with kisses as he started to giggle and squirm. "You know, I have to kiss someone," Elin said before she gave him a big kiss on the cheek. "And you're just asking for it!"

"Go kiss somebody else!" he giggled delightedly.

"But I like kissing you!" Elin said, tickling him along with the kisses.

"No-o-o-o-o!" Kade called out, twisting and squirming. He finally ended up just snuggling her and trying to get a hold of his giggles.

"Thank you," Elin said when he settled out. "I know it was terrible for you, fuzzy cheeks."

"Girls have cooties," Kade said.

"It's okay, I took a shower. Cooties are gone," Elin promised. "And I got a hug from your dad too … so. No cooties."

"Okay," he said, nodding slowly.

"He doesn't think Malin has cooties," Kaleb said with a smirk.

"Malin's not a _girl_. She's my _friend_ ," Kade sniffed.

"What?" Elin said. "Are you sweet on my sister? Do I need to beat you up?"

Kade pulled a horrible face. "Malin's _Malin_ ," he said.

"Yes, she is," Elin agreed before she pulled Kade's soda over so he could reach it.

"You gotta kiss other people, Elin," Kade said, wiping his cheeks even as he leaned back on her. "You gotta kiss, like… you gotta kiss my sister and Sying and you should kiss Chance because you should."

"You make a solid argument," Elin said seriously, nodding to herself. "But your sisters don't want me kissing them, Sying is sitting on the ceiling, and I'm pretty sure Chance doesn't want any kisses right now, so … no."

"I can help walk on the ceiling," Kade said.

"You can't get Elin on the ceiling," Kaleb pointed out.

Elin looked over at Kaleb and gave him a little smile. "He would if he could."

"That's right I would," Kade said happily. "I like Elin."

"But she's a girl."

"Nu-uh, she's almost as old as _Mom_."

"See?" Elin said. "Super old and gross. Not even an issue."

"Elin's not that old, Kade," Kaleb laughed.

"But you're close, baby," Kate said with a little smirk that had Kurt chuckling at her.

Elin gave Kate and Kurt a little smile before she glanced around at the group. "I should probably get out of your hair."

"You're welcome to stay as long as you need to," Kurt said. "Or as long as you like, even. We all love having you."

"Thanks … but I should probably go help Jubes," she said. "Sadie and Malin have been with her all afternoon."

"Come back soon," Kari said with a smile. "I liked Krissy's pitching arm."

"Poor follow-through," Elin said, shrugging. "And terrible aim for a Hawkeye."

"Maybe next time," Kari said.

"And then you get hit in the face with pizza?" Kade asked, perking up and grinning up at Elin.

"Never gonna happen, little man," Elin said before she booped his nose and got up, leaving Kade in her seat as she simply left the group to their own devices.

* * *

While Logan and K were curled up and Kate and Kurt were with their family, Annie and Scott had come down to the med lab to check on how Chance was doing. And while he hadn't really touched any of the food that Annie had made, he was deep in conversation with Charlie about her trip to NYU.

"So you think you'll go there?" Chance asked.

"Well, yeah, it's close," Charlie said, then looked up with a smile when their parents arrived. "Besides, I couldn't leave Mom and Dad, right?"

"That's right, sweetheart," Annie said with a smile as she sat down next to Charlie and ruffled her hair before she reached over and rested her hand on Chance's. "How are you feeling?"

Chance shrugged. "Right now… just tired," he admitted. "Dr. Blue says I have to stay here, though."

"Just for a little while," Scott said.

"Yeah, he said that too," Chance said. He looked between Annie and Scott and let out a little breath. "Dad, I was going to tell you after I broke up with-"

"It's fine," Scott broke in. "Elin told me what happened."

Chance nodded and then looked back down at his hands. "Yeah, she…"

Charlie smirked and knocked his shoulder with hers. "Total lifesaver."

"Literally," he had to agree.

Annie smiled between the two of them, though it fell a bit when she saw the untouched plate by Chance. "Honey-"

"I'm… not really hungry, Mom," Chance admitted. "I don't know if it's just… I don't know. There was a lot of crap in my system not that long ago, and I don't feel like…" He rubbed the back of his neck.

"Soup, then?" she offered. "You need to eat, Chance."

"I will," he said.

Annie watched him for a moment before she scooted her chair to sit closer to him with a smile. "What about a chocolate cake?" she asked, the smile turning a little more teasing.

Chance couldn't help but smile at that. "A whole chocolate cake just for me?"

"Well, you're my little boy…"

Chance shook his head but leaned over and pulled his mom into a hug. "Love you too, Mom."


	10. Just The Beginning

The next morning, Elin came in with Chance's blanket folded up in her arms. She didn't say anything, since he looked like he was sleeping, so she simply set it down on the foot of his bed and turned to leave.

"Hey, El," he said quietly.

She looked over her shoulder and then turned back to him. "How are you feeling?" she asked, arms crossed over her stomach.

"Not too bad," he said, turning to face her. "Bored. Charlie brought me a book or two, but there's only so much a good Western can do, even if it's well-written."

She nodded and shrugged lightly. "I didn't get your phone back, but if you wanted some music, you could use mine …"

"That's fine," he promised. "I don't want to steal yours."

"Not like I'm talking to anyone anyhow," she said. "I was just thinking of things other than reading that you could do."

"Well, Hank won't really let me do anything fun like go shooting," Chance pointed out with a small smirk.

"Yeah he's a stickler about being able to stand up without passing out before he'll sign off on anything that involves red targets. Spoilsport."

"I can do the standing thing alright; it's just…" He held up one hand to show her it was shaking. "That."

"So …. Krissy'd have a chance at out-shooting you, is what you're really saying … and you can't let your rep slip," Elin decided.

Chance shook his head. "How's she doing, anyway?"

"She is mad about the pickles I sent up and the pineapple pizza that went up after that," Elin reported. "Threw a plate of pizza at me last night. Made me promise not to send up more weird food, so … I sent her pancakes and _green tea_ this morning."

Chance smiled at that. "Hey, that sounds like progress, though. You're a genius."

"She thinks I'm being mean to her," Elin said. "Pretty sure she's going to hate me by the time this is over."

"She'll get over it when she gets back to herself," Chance said. "You're hard to hate."

"I don't know about that," Elin said. "How are things down here? Really."

"Honestly?" Chance shook his head. "Boring. Very, very boring."

"Hard to be anything but bored when you're stuck in the med bay," she replied. "But that'll change soon, and you'll be back to yourself."

Chance nodded. "Yeah. Well, it'd be nice if I could stop shaking so I could go back to — I dunno. Riding or something."

She nodded and reached over to unfold the blanket for him. "You look cold; maybe that's part of it."

"Yeah, I asked Hank to turn up the heat. I mean, he's covered in fur, so maybe he doesn't notice it," Chance chuckled.

"That's definitely part of it," she agreed, trying to help him get situated and ignoring the fact that the room was perfectly warm and cozy.

"How's your dad?" he asked.

Elin held her breath for a moment as she fidgeted with his blanket, then tipped her head to the side. "He's … passed out and latched on to Mom. Doesn't want to do anything right now."

"I'm glad he's alright," he said quietly.

"He's not, really," she admitted. "But he will be."

"Well, it takes a while. This stuff…" He leaned back. "I swear, El, I've never been glad someone was dead before."

She nodded and looked down to the ground at that. "It's done anyhow. Neither one of them can come after you."

He grinned at her and reached over to put a hand on her arm. "Hey. Want to go shooting with me once Hank clears me? You look like you could use it."

"I suppose if you want to feel bad, I can do that," she replied with a little smirk.

"Please. I've been a crack shot since I was, like, ten."

"You and me both, but you, Sweet Summers … are not up to snuff yet," she teased.

"Oh, sure, take advantage," he laughed.

"Pretty sure you don't want me to do that," she replied. "I'll wait until you're where you should be."

Chance nodded and grinned at her. "So, are you missing class just to come promise to wipe the floor with me?"

"Dad's class — so I'm still being good," she said, shrugging again. "Cancelled."

"Well, I'm glad," Chance said. "I mean… not that your dad's out of commission, but it's nice to have a visitor who isn't my parents or Hank during the day."

"Seriously, do you want me to bring you something? I'm pretty sure I could get some movies down here for you. Hank won't even complain if I bring popcorn with _Wyatt Earp_."

"Hey, now we're talking," Chance said, starting to grin.

"Alright," she said, glancing up at the clock. "I've got a little time. I can just send in the bamfs if it gets too close to my next class. They'd even keep you company and eat your popcorn for you."

"How thoughtful of them," Chance laughed, leaning back and grinning at Elin for a long moment before she seemed to realize he was staring.

She blinked to herself and dropped her gaze as she brushed a lock of hair behind her ear and settled in to try and get him talking about _anything_ before she zipped off to go find a movie and some popcorn. After he was set up, though, she did have to go to class — so it was another few hours before she came down to see how he was doing again.

"Did you get un-bored while I was gone?" she asked, though she had a few books with her when she showed up this time.

He grinned and waved her over. "Movie was great, and Cody got ridiculous and started bringing me homework just … I don't know. To do it, I think."

"To get you to do his for him?" she asked. "Because that is something he'd try."

"Oh, so I _shouldn't_ have missed all those questions?" Chance asked, perfectly straight-faced.

"I wrote his 'favorite things' essay specifically to get him busted, but Kate just laughed and made him read it out loud," Elin told him.

"See, and I missed it," Chance said, shaking his head.

"It was recorded," she promised. "'Fluffy Kittens: 101 Reasons I Adore Them.'"

"Oh, I'm asking Charlie to get that for me. Or Kari. I know one of them knows where it is."

"You don't have to go through all that trouble." She punched in the code for her phone, found the video in question, and tossed the phone to him. "Enjoy."

He grinned at that and then burst into an honest laugh that kept going the longer he watched his little brother shifting and hemming and hawing at the front of the classroom as Kate behind him kept on laughing the longer he stood there. By the time the video was through, Chance was holding his stomach from laughing so hard. "Oh, man. That — that was beautiful, El," he said, handing her back the phone, though it took her a second to get it back properly from him with the way his hands were shaking.

"Your dad didn't even punish him when he heard how it went down," she told him with a shrug.

"The fact that his face is as red as his shades probably had something to do with it."

She gave him a little smile as she thought it over and once again handed him the phone. "Keep it. There's music and a few other choice videos if you get bored and can't concentrate on the movies too well," she said before she gave him the code. "And no one is trying to talk to me. So."

"Thanks, El. Seriously. I needed a good laugh," he told her as he set the phone down on the table nearby.

"Not even a problem." She watched him for a few minutes, looking at the state of his bed, and frowned when she realized the bowl of popcorn was still full. "Did I bring down the wrong kind of popcorn?" she asked, frowning a little deeper. "I thought I had the right one."

"What?" He looked at the bowl. "Oh. No. I just… I'm not real hungry. Not your fault."

"Okay," Elin said, nodding to herself. "Is there something that _does_ sound good to you?"

He shrugged and shook his head. "Not really. I mean, I'm sure I'll be hungry eventually but you know - maybe getting a tube shoved down my throat isn't doing wonders for swallowing either," he tried to joke.

"Ice cream?" she offered. "Or a slushie, maybe? That was always my favorite when I had a sore throat."

"Yeah, Charlie brought popsicles," Chance said with a small smile.

"Then it seems I have nothing to offer," she said as she leaned back in her chair.

"Good company makes all the difference," Chance pointed out.

"Not sure how good of company I'll be while I'm doing my calculus," she replied.

Chance grinned over at her. "That's fine. Just nice not to be by myself. I mean, Mom and Dad come down all the time, but …" He let out his breath. "Mom's worried, Dad's mad, it's nice to have someone just _be_ around."

"Well, you know I can do seat filler just fine," Elin said.

He grinned and leaned back. "Thanks, El."

She looked up at him for a moment. "You're welcome, just wish I had something to do that was useful."

"Like I said, company's nice," he insisted, pulling out the Western Charlie had brought him so they could make themselves comfortable, which was how Scott found them when he poked his head in to check on Chance.

"Hey, Dad," Chance said with a little smile and a wave. "It's a party."

"Looks like," Scott said.

"I can go if you want some privacy," Elin said, already starting to put her books away.

"No, that's fine," Scott said. "You should stay. I just thought I'd check in. I need to talk to Hank anyway."

She paused and watched Scott for a moment before she haltingly took her books out again and slowly opened them. "If you say so," Elin said quietly.

Scott shook his head at her before he slipped past the two teenagers to track down Hank, as he'd said, to pull his old friend aside. "How's he doing — really?" he asked. He was glad to see that Chance was spending time with Elin, of course, but he also hadn't missed the fact that he hadn't eaten and that he was starting to shake more than just his hands.

Hank glanced out to where the two teens were sitting and quietly joking from time to time and shook his head. "He seems to be making his way down the checklist of symptoms," Hank said frankly.

"Alright, so what should we be watching for?" Scott asked, his arms crossed.

"Mood swings, seizures, possibly other mental issues — short term, of course," Hank said. "He has no appetite now, but he'll likely start with more flu-like symptoms. The worst is yet to come."

"That's not a guaranteed list, is it?" Scott said with a frown.

"No," Hank said. "Nor is it complete of the possible symptoms. You're welcome, of course, to look through the list, if you wish, but honestly, it would just make you more anxious."

"I'd rather be prepared," Scott said.

"Of course you would," Hank said before he opened up the list on his computer and gestured to the screen. "What _was_ I thinking?"

* * *

At the moment, the Wagner kids were all asleep, and Kate had just finished checking on all of them to make sure of that fact when she got back to her and Kurt's bedroom, determinedly not showing how exhausted and depressed she felt until the door was closed and she could lean against it with her eyes closed to process the grief she still felt watching Krissy try to return to her normal life.

Yes, Krissy was getting better with every passing hour. But that didn't make Kate's heartache any less real when she thought of how much hurt her daughter had been through.

And she wasn't the only one struggling.

She sighed and let her shoulders drop when she saw Kurt kneeling next to their bed, a rosary clasped in both hands. She could see his lips moving but couldn't hear the words — not that she needed to.

Without a word, she slipped beside him, kneeling alongside him. She bowed her head and placed her hand on his arm, letting Kurt know she was praying with him without interrupting him.

It was all they could do at that moment.

* * *

Sying was a bit nervous about stopping by the Wagners' again, but Kari has assured him that Krissy was talking to people and was acting much better. Though that didn't change the fact that she had been scared of him last time he stopped by.

But when he stopped in, Krissy was playing a video game with Kaleb, smirking to herself when she pulled ahead of her brother during the race, though Kaleb paused the game when he saw Sying and waved at him. "Hi, Sying!" he called out, and Krissy looked up at him and gave him a very small smile too.

"You look a lot better," Sying said, smiling as he came to sit down with the two of them.

"I keep hearing that," Krissy said.

"You can take my spot," Kaleb said, offering Sying his controller.

Sying took the offered spot and sat down next to Krissy, his head tipped to the side. "Seriously," he said with an encouraging sort of smile. "You look great, Krissy."

"You're overselling it," she said, though she couldn't help but smile.

"Well, I'm supposed to," he said, the smile widening. "I mean, that's what you do when you like someone."

"You're sweet, Sying," she said.

"I know. But it won't change matters because I'm still going to kick your butt in this game," Sying said, waving his controller so she could see it.

At that, Krissy finally broke into something like a laugh. "You won't."

"Put your money where your mouth is," he shot back, and she responded by setting up a new game and stealing the best car for herself, wearing a grin she couldn't restrain.

* * *

In the lab, Chance was exhausted. He had a splitting headache that just wouldn't go away. It had kept him up the whole night, and it was only getting worse.

 _Now I know how Cody felt,_ he thought, though that wasn't exactly helping him either, since at least there had been a _point_ to Cody's headaches.

Of course, it wasn't helping that the headache was making it hard to concentrate, so the book Charlie had left him … that wasn't happening. He'd tried watching a few videos on Elin's phone, but his hands were shaking badly enough that he kept bouncing the screen, so it was impossible to deal with. Setting it on the table didn't help much either, because he couldn't find a comfortable way to lean over that didn't make the headache worse.

Finally, he got fed up with it and threw aside the covers. It took him a lot of doing, but he managed to get out of the bed all the same, and from there, he just wanted to hit something. If he could just… pound a punching bag for a while, he was sure that would help.

And he did feel better upright. The shaking wasn't so bad, and it wasn't like he had to have perfectly steady hands to walk, right?

He was almost to the door before Hank saw what he was up to.

"Mr. Summers, although I am tickled to see you feeling well enough to try your lot at upright travel, I'm afraid your vitals are singing a different song," Hank said. "Please, try to relax."

Chance turned to glare at Hank. His head was pounding as he shook it. "I gotta hit something," he argued.

"Then I'll bring you something to hit," Hank said. "Your heart rate is going a bit too fast for you to leave."

"I'm _not_ staying here," Chance snapped back, his hands in fists.

Hank tipped his chin down to look at him over his glasses. "Yes, I've heard that before as well. But I'm afraid you're wrong about that." He gestured toward the bed. "Please. I'd rather not traumatize you if I can avoid it."

Chance shook his head more vehemently at that and turned back to the door. "Yeah. No. I'm done sitting in that stupid bed," he said.

Hank sighed heavily, knowing what he had to do, and headed back for a dose of something to sedate the boy before he crossed the span in two quick bounds and wrapped him up in a bear hug. "This will be much easier if you simply do as I ask. Last chance, young man."

" _Get off of me_!" Chance screamed, trying to dislodge Hank.

Hank frowned and secured him with one arm, apologizing to him quietly before he hit him with the sedation and held tight until he passed out. He scooped him up and returned him to bed, truly upset with how quickly Chance seemed to be progressing, and after he had the boy's leads reattached, he paused and considered his options.

Chances were very good that when the young man woke up, he would try to repeat his laborious escape attempt. And that simply wouldn't do. He stood there weighing it out until Tyler put down his book and came over to make the decision for him and replace the restraints.

Of course, that didn't help Chance's state of mind _at all_ when he did wake up after having been sedated to find that he was strapped down again. He went into an obvious panic at first, but the moment he saw Hank, he snapped at him to leave him alone. "Don't _touch_ me," he snarled.

"I have no intentions to do anything of the sort," Hank replied easily, still reading his reports. "Can I get you anything? Second pillow? Glass of water? A literal chill pill, perhaps?"

"I'm not touching anything you give me," Chance sneered at him angrily.

"That's fine; I'm sure I'll find someone else to attend to your needs while I supervise from my desk," Hank said as he sent a message to Scott to update him on Chance's progress.

"Let me out of here." Chance was clearly furious, doing his best to get out himself.

"Certainly," Hank called back. "As soon as you're over the worst of your detox, you're free to go, with my blessings and well wishes."

Chance glared at Hank with as much venom as he could muster. "You're lying."

"Nonsense," Hank said, turning his way. "When have I lied to you? Or anyone, for that matter?"

"You're lying. I was doing _fine_ before you freaking _sedated_ me. What else did you do?" Chance demanded.

"Oh, yes. The tachycardia was, I'm sure, a fluke thing, along with your other symptoms."

"Yeah, and how many of those did you _give_ me?" Chance shot back.

"Chance, I'm not going to entertain your delusions," Hank said, turning back to his computer. "If you feel that strongly, then you're welcome to speak to the alternate physician on staff. I'll just switch your chart from Dr. McCoy to Dr. McCoy."

"Just don't touch me," Chance said, glaring, though with Hank ignoring his outburst in favor of his reports, Chance fell silent and went very still.

Which was the situation when Scott got down to the lab, looking concerned already from Hank's report and frowning harder at the fact that Chance was totally still with his eyes closed in the restraints. "Hank…"

"Yes, Scott," Hank replied, barely glancing up at him. "What can I do for you on this less than ideal afternoon?"

Scott frowned as he looked toward Chance. "How bad?" he asked in a low tone.

"Paranoid delusions," Hank replied. "Unfortunately, I was forced to sedate him … and of course, that was traumatic in itself."

Scott rubbed his eyes when he heard it. "What can I do?"

"I'm afraid there isn't much," Hank admitted. "He needs to burn it out of his system. That will take fluids, time, and whatever he can force into his stomach. Unfortunately, with the drugs that Viper gave him in conjunction with the boost, I can't give him anything to clean it out faster than the dialysis we already did. Not without risking some permanent damage. I'm afraid he needs to 'ride it out', as they say."

Scott frowned at the answer and rubbed his eyes again. "Anything I can do?" Hank shook his head. "How long has he been like this?" he asked, gesturing toward the unmoving boy.

"Combative, restrained, or silent?"

"Honestly, I'd like to know the answers to all of those."

"Of course you would," Hank said before he let out a breath and checked his notes. "Still since around the time I messaged you, restrained for the past three hours, combative for about forty-five minutes before then."

Scott frowned deeper. "Right," he said as he clearly thought it over. "Well."

"I'm also no longer allowed to touch him, so we're playing that game."

"Then let me help," Scott offered.

"Unless I need to restrain him — and he is properly restrained now — I am able to comply with my patient's request and I won't need to touch him. If you'd like to try to get him to ingest some sustenance, I invite you to try."

Scott nodded at that. "That much I can do," he agreed, getting to his feet again.

But when he tried to get Chance's attention, the young man didn't move or acknowledge him in the least.

"Come on, Chance. I know you're not asleep," Scott said with a frown. "I'm not playing this game with you."

Chance tried to keep it up for a little while longer, but it was clear that Scott was going to wait him out, and he was much more accomplished at playing the waiting game. Finally, Chance let out a breath and looked over at Scott. "I'm not touching that," he said.

"You have to eat."

"I don't have to do anything," Chance shot back with a serious glare.

"Yes, actually, you do," Scott said flatly.

Chance glared at that and then turned his head away from Scott and closed his eyes again, and Scott let out a breath, settling in to wait him out once more.

* * *

Elin hadn't been down to see Chance, and she was a little worried about him if she was being perfectly honest. She had planned to bring him some Italian ice from the place in Salem Center that she knew he liked so much, but Hank had caught her on the way out the door and warned her not only to stay home for the time being, but to stay out of the lab. "He's not very receptive to anyone right now, my dear," Hank told her. "If you need to get away, then by all means, do so, but don't make a special trip for him _today._ "

"Maybe it would cheer him up, though," Elin argued.

"Not today," Hank said. "He's physically ill. If it were just mood, I might agree with you, but that is not the case today."

Elin nodded, but didn't put the keys up. Not when she could use a break anyhow. "Thanks, Dr. Blue. I think … I'm just going to go get some fresh air anyhow." With that, she slipped out into the garage and took her dad's Jeep to do a little off roading around the property. It was a tried and true method in the family to blow off a little steam, but it was still something she preferred to do with someone. She was nearly to the horsebarn when she saw her little brother doing the chores - their parents were still in their suite. Dad wasn't right yet, and he was sleeping a lot more than usual - but only when he was using their mother as a pillow/teddy bear.

"Hey," Elin called out, which got James to stop in his tracks. "Are you done with the horses?"

"Yeah … why?"

"Hop in. I want company that doesn't try to talk my ear off," Elin said, and with an understanding nod, James simply headed toward her and climbed in.

"Only one question," James said as he settled in the passenger seat. "Are we mudding?"

"If we can find good mud," Elin agreed before the two of them headed out. James was safe. He knew by looking a her that Elin was worried about things. And she knew he would do as she needed him to - by being quiet and just being with her while she thought through everything.

But even James was concerned for Elin. The Howlett kids knew that Elin had killed someone - and even though it was in defense of their family and Chance, they knew how serious that was and how hard their parents had tried to shield them from being too close to anything like murder and death.

She felt awful and having her best friends out of the picture for the time being had Elin feeling isolated and almost entirely alone. She didn't know if the Summers family understood what had happened. She could remember telling Scott … something, but she didn't know if he knew what exactly she'd done and she was loathe to bring it up to him. He had too much on his mind right now. He didn't need to concern himself with Elin's insecurities too. At least, that's what she told herself.

She was alive, after all, and the spots that Hank had taken the bullets from only hurt when she turned a certain way. Her worries were incidental, comparatively. And no one needed to know that the crushing feeling of guilt from killing someone was starting to make it hard to _breathe_. She kept reminding herself it was self defense. It was defending her family. It was defending Chance … but she couldn't shake the nagging voice in the back of her head that told her that maybe … maybe she wasn't being entirely honest with herself. Maybe there was more to how quickly she killed Jamie. There was opportunity, after all, to incapacitate her. She didn't _have_ to kill her. And maybe, with professional help the girl could have been saved.

What if Elin was wrong about all of this? What if Jamie really wasn't evil, and was instead just a brainwashed victim?

"You want me to drive?" James asked, breaking into Elin's thoughts as they sat at a fork in the trail.

"Maybe on the way back," Elin said, blinking out of her thoughts. "I just need a minute to think."

"Take your time," James said quietly, frowning as he watched her finally put it into gear. "Hey." Elin looked over at him for a second and let the car roll slower. "I love you, sis."

"I love you too," she said, forcing a small smile. "Do you mind if we just go to the rocks and hang out for a while? I know I said I wanted to mud, but -"

"Whatever you want to do," James promised. "I'm here."


	11. Burning Bridges

With all of the mess that had been going on over the past few days, James simply hadn't gone to Stark Tower to work in the labs.

Too many major players were out for one reason or another, and it had James on edge, waiting for the other shoe to drop, so instead of rushing back and forth, he simply stayed put at Xavier's and tried to help out with his family.

Of course, he didn't bother trying to do anything as foolhardy as _cooking,_ because honestly, when Annie wasn't with Chance, she was involved in the kitchen, cooking and baking her stress into submission.

Instead, James took a more practical approach that got him a few raised eyebrows when he simply started to step in when one of the adults looked like they were pinned down one way or another to cover their classes. It wasn't like high school courses were hard, and for the most part, the classes really just needed someone to be there and keep the peace while the kids did their assignments, read their sections, or took a random test or two. Except for Scott's class. That actually took a little time to show them how to do some of the equations.

Of course, he didn't teach it out of the book, because those methods were slow and drawn out — and frankly, they put James to sleep.

Not that he expected anyone to complain — or even for Scott to entirely appreciate it. But the kids running through that class were actually nailing it a lot faster than usual — and only due to a few shortcuts that skipped some unnecessary steps.

Scott had been taken off-guard when James texted him to inform him that it was Scott's turn to play hooky. But he didn't exactly argue it either, not while Chance was having a hard time down in the lab. And that was how Charlie found James … smirking to himself and texting Scott to find out what he wanted the kids in calculus to do, since … _most of them will never ever need this. Ever. So if I'm wasting their brain cells_ — _how wasted do you want them to be?_

"Hi, Charlie," James said, sitting on Scott's desk with a little smile. "You feel like anything in particular? Because we're going to burn through your dad's lesson plan today in about ten minutes."

Charlie shook her head at him and took a seat, and as soon as the class was filled up and the bell rang, James simply got started. "Scott's busy, so you're stuck with me," James said. "So let's get through this as easy as we can — and then I'll show you a shortcut that'll pretty much make today's lesson worthless."

"Why do we have to learn today's lesson at all if you're going to show us how to make it obsolete?" one of the newer girls asked from next to Charlie.

"Because I'm not testing you; Scott is. So you've gotta know how to do it his way too." James gave her a dry look and simply dove in explaining how U-substitution worked, making sure that he was careful about getting everyone on the same page. Halfway through the class, it seemed like they all had it down pat — and were working through equations without much trouble.

"So what's the shortcut then, smart guy?" an older boy asked from the back of the class, though one look at his paper showed that the kid didn't get it — and likely hadn't gotten the previous three or four lessons Scott had taught. In short: he was in over his head and lashing out at the new guy a little bit.

"Just that you don't always need it," James replied. "And … honestly, a lot of times, you don't."

When prompted, James took all of about ten minutes to show the shortcut — basically a different way to do the same equations without the extra steps — and still get the right answer.

Which was all fine and good, if not for the fact that the boy from earlier was copping an attitude at the idea that he had to learn two methods.

"No one said you had to learn two," the girl next to Charlie said. "You just have to know the first one … this is a shortcut for people that are good at this."

The little argument seemed to peter out on its own, and when class was over, Charlie was sure to make her way over to where James was sitting cross-legged on the desk. "You should come down and see Chance," she told him. "He could use more friendly faces."

"Yeah, maybe after everything settles down a little bit. I'm really just trying to make sure you guys can spend as much time as you want with him," James said. "So Scott can try to relax a little before he freaks out over the next big thing."

Charlie smiled at that. "You're really sweet sometimes, you know that?"

"No, I'm not," James said before he hopped off of the desk. "I'm sticking with 'I needed a break from the tower anyhow'."

"It's okay; you don't have to lie to me," Charlie said, shaking her head at him. "I know you actually have a heart."

"You know damn well I'm not lying," James said before he pushed her at the shoulder.

She grinned at him and responded by wrapping him up in a hug instead. When she stepped back, she was still grinning. "Come back."

"Come back what?"

"Come _back_ ," she said. "Come back to the mansion more. Get involved. You ran away and you needed time to recover, but it's time to come back now. We miss you!"

"Charlie … literally the only person who has noticed I've been gone at all is you."

"I think you'll find that's not true, and if you take half a second to pull your head out, you'd notice that you have a godfather, friends, and family — all of whom would throw a party if they heard you were going to be around more, and you know it."

"I'm here at night," he defended. "Usually."

She gave him a dry look.

"Alright; I'll think about it," James said, shaking his head.

She beamed at him and wrapped him up in another hug. "Thanks, James!"

* * *

Scott was still sitting with an obstinate Chance when Elin showed up, totally distracted as she walked in with her assignment for Literature. "Chance, maybe you can help me pick," she said, not looking up yet. "My head is not in this at all and I have to pick a famous impressionism painting to _interpret_ for three thousand words … what do you think? Monet or Van Gogh?" She stopped a few paces from his bed and tipped her head to the side at the setup around him — the fact that he was restrained, that both Doctors McCoy were on the far side of the lab, and that Scott looked worn and annoyed. "Or I can just come back later?"

"Come in, Elin," Scott said with a tired sigh. "Maybe you'll have a little better luck."

"Better luck with what?" she asked, looking entirely distressed at the state of everyone involved. "What can I do?"

"If you could get him to eat something…" Scott gestured between himself and Hank. "Apparently, he doesn't trust us."

Elin set her books down and looked between the two of them, then down at Chance, before she very cautiously took a few steps closer. "Only if he wants me to stay," she said finally.

There was a long moment of silence as Scott waited for Chance to respond, but it wasn't until he took a small step back that Chance seemed to relax slightly and looked toward Elin. "Alright," he said slowly.

She looked wary as she went around the foot of his bed to very gently sit down next to him on the bed, facing him. "Are you sure?"

"Unless you're going to drug me too," he said with a frown.

She crossed her arms and gave him a look. " _Please_. I don't like you when you're drugged."

"Then, yeah."

She gingerly reached out and rested her hand on his arm as she leaned forward just a touch. "I can even tell you if they're trying to drug your food if you don't trust anyone here. Unless you don't trust _me_ , too."

"No, I know you can smell it," Chance said, though he was frowning as he thought it over.

"Okay, so how do you want to do this … or am I in the 'evil' category now?"

Chance paused a surprising amount of time. "Just… I can do it myself if I could reach."

Hank interrupted their discussion. "Just lengthen the restraints a bit," he said.

"Come on, Uncle Blue," Elin said with one of her best smiles his way. "Give him one hand. He doesn't want anyone _feeding_ him."

"He won't let me leave, El," Chance told her in a whisper.

"He's worried about you," she whispered back. "You almost died. Where do you want to go, anyhow?"

"I just want to _hit_ something," Chance muttered.

"Something or someone? Do you want to hit me?" she asked.

"No."

"Then … are you going to hit me if I try to give you your hand so you can eat?" Elin asked. "Because I'm going to sit right here and make sure you don't do anything that will get you tied up again."

"Fine." He nodded once.

She ignored Hank's argument and started on the restraint holding his right hand, though she paused and stuck a finger in his face. "If you try anything, I'll tackle you..."

"Yeah, I'm sure you'll be real pleased with yourself tackling a tied-up guy," he grumbled.

"Chance," she said, tipping her head to catch his gaze. "You know I'm teasing, don't you? I'm on your side. I just want to help you."

"Oh yeah," he said sarcastically. "I figured that out real quick when you let my girlfriend dope me."

She paused, the little smirk she had been wearing gone entirely. "I didn't …" She took a breath and stared at him for a moment at a loss for words. "I didn't _let her_ do anything," she defended quietly as her heart ticked up its pace.

"Oh yeah?" he snapped back, building up speed. "You knew the _whole time_ , Elin. You really thought I'd do that? You think I'd take _drugs_? Me? Really?"

"Well I didn't think she was _poisoning_ you either," Elin said evenly, though her glare was getting harder with everything he had to say, and her muscles were suddenly tensed and ready to spring.

"Chance," Scott broke in, trying to diffuse the situation before it could get any worse.

But Chance wasn't listening. "This is _your fault_ ," he all but snarled at Elin. "Now you think I'm just going to let you lord it over me? I didn't _do anything_." He glared at her. "You _did this_ to me."

" _Chance,_ " Scott said sharply.

Elin had gone pale, but her glare was harder than either Summers had ever seen from her as she simply got to her feet. "At least I know how you feel," Elin said in an icy tone. "I won't bother you again, Chance." She slipped past the stunned adults, leaving her books behind as she stalked out of the med lab.

Scott glared down at Chance. "We're not done," he promised before he hit the hallway to catch Elin before she could fully disappear, knowing exactly the look she'd been wearing. "Elin, wait," he called after her.

She paused and gave him a quick glance over her shoulder, the stony expression still in place. "Don't worry; I won't come back."

Scott shook his head. "I'm sorry; I shouldn't have asked you to get involved when he's like this," he said.

"I's fine," she said, her tone even and clear. "It was my fault. I was coming down anyhow. You didn't have anything to do with it."

"Hank says he's not fully cognizant," Scott explained. "He thought Hank was drugging him earlier and didn't trust me with any of his food; he doesn't mean it. Obviously, his perception of reality isn't up to snuff."

"I'm sure that's part of it," Elin said before she straightened up a little bit. "But honestly, I've been the last person he's wanted to talk to for a long time. This is long overdue. It's fine. I needed to know where I stood and he finally told me."

"Nobody blames you, Elin," Scott swore. " _No one_."

"Okay," she replied, as she slid her hands in her back pockets.

"It was my fault for asking you to help," Scott said.

"It really wasn't," Elin told him, though she kept that same hard tone, and her expression hadn't changed. "He had to get it off his chest." She looked up at Scott and tried for a tight smile that barely came off as such. "I just hope he gets over this quickly for you and Annie. But me? I don't figure into this anymore. And that's okay."

Scott gave her a dry look. "Right." He shook his head at her. "I'll let you know when he gets past this part. I'm sure he'll want to see you."

She shook her head at the last part, but didn't argue with him. "Thats really not necessary." She stopped and kept her gaze to a point in the corner of the elevator. "I'm not going to be in class tomorrow. Probably not for the rest of the week either." She looked up at him, but didn't look upset at all anymore.

Scott frowned at that but simply had to nod. "Alright." When the elevator doors opened, he watched Elin for a moment as she walked down the hall before he let out a frustrated sigh and headed back down to the lab, where Chance was back to his completely still routine.

"I hope you're pleased with yourself," Scott said. "Your friend saved your life, and she's been right here through every step of your recovery — and _that_ is how you repay her?"

Chance simply glared at Scott. "Just leave me alone."

"No." Scott sat down next to Chance. "I know you think you've got it all figured out, but you're going to realize what a mistake you just made at some point. Until then, I'm staying right here. You're my son; that's my job."

Chance frowned at him. "Just… go away."

"No."

"I'm not going to let you keep me here," Chance insisted, with some serious heat.

"Yeah, well, I'm not going anywhere until you eat something, so I guess we'll both be here for a while," Scott shot back, leaning back in his seat to make himself comfortable for the long haul.

* * *

While Elin had been down in the med bay, Sying had decided to go see Krissy again. She was doing better every time he saw her, because once she had decided that this was reality — and she hadn't seen anything that would suggest that Christian was pulling her strings again — she was starting to relax a bit, too.

He brought some hot chocolate in mugs to sit with her for a while out in the garden. March had just started, and it was cold, but not snowy, and it was nice to just sit on the swing with their hot chocolate.

"Not going back to class yet?" Sying asked gently.

"Not yet," Krissy admitted, staring down into her mug. "I know I need to, and I will, I just... It's hard to go back when everyone knows why I was gone."

He nodded. "I had the same problem when I got back from space," he said. "Everyone knew I'd been held for ransom, and it was hard to avoid the looks of pity."

She nodded. "Everything's changed."

"It really hasn't," he promised. "I know it seems like it, but that's just because everyone's trying to make sure you're okay."

"I'm …"

"Krissy, you're not okay," Sying said, reaching over to take her hand. "And I'm going to tell you what my grandma told me: you've been traumatized. You have to accept that. But that isn't your reality forever."

Krissy nodded, watching her marshmallows swirl in her hot chocolate for a while. "It's not…"

"Yeah, I know," he said. He was watching her carefully as he leaned in a bit closer. "You know I'm going to be right here for whatever you need, just like you were there for me when I was freaking out after Chandilar."

She nodded and finally looked up at him and seemed to notice how close they were. She took in a quick breath and shook her head lightly, her eyes wide as she scooted back from him. "No," she said softly.

He very quickly pulled back to give her some space, his eyes wide. "What?"

"No, you can't…" She looked pained for a moment and then looked down at her mug again.

"I'm sorry," he said quickly.

"It's not…" Krissy took a deep breath. " _I'm_ sorry," she said. "I just… can't…"

"It's fine," he assured her.

"It's just that he looked like you," she said in a tone that was soft enough he might have missed it if he was someone else, but with his hearing, he caught it, and his head came up fast as he took in the miserable way she was turning her mug around in her hands.

"Oh." Just like that, all the wind went out of Sying's sails, and he wanted to tear the guy apart — though he couldn't, because Logan already had. "Okay," he said.

"Sying—"

"It's okay," he promised, even though it wasn't. "It is. I told you I was going to be there for you, and you know, you're recovering, and it's okay."

Krissy nodded and then looked up at him, her eyes wide. "I really am sorry."

"It's not your fault," he promised. He took a deep breath and let it out again. "But I want to stay here, if that's okay."

"Please," she said, smiling a bit at him.


	12. Chance's Advocate

Meanwhile, Elin had gone almost straight to her parents' room and let the stony expression slide, since it did her no good with them anyhow. "I want to go to the cottage," she announced as Logan glanced her way from where he was stretched out on his bed. "I just …I need some space away from everyone here and some time to think, so I need the cottage. Or a cabin … or … I gotta get out of here."

Logan watched her for a long moment, studying her, before he nodded to himself. "You'll need to bring a comm, and my phone, and check in at the same time every day you're there," he told her, all of which she quickly agreed to. "And travel by bamf."

"Which means I need to ask Uncle Kurt," Elin said, nodding to herself. "Okay. I'll be back for your keys." She paused, then crossed the room to give her father a quick kiss before she headed over to the Wagners' suite and knocked quietly on the door.

Kurt grinned when he saw Elin, though he lost a bit of the smile when he saw the look on her face. "What's the matter?" he asked her, pulling her inside under his arm.

"I need to get out of here, and Dad said I could go if I travelled by bamf," Elin said. "So I'm here to ask if it's okay to ask one to help me for a few minutes."

"Yes, of course, but can I ask what happened?" Kurt asked, still looking concerned.

"Nothing really happened," Elin said. "I just need to clear my head after … well, everything."

"Are you sure?"

"Very."

Kurt nodded lightly and pulled her into a warm hug, which was how Krissy found them when she arrived, looking a bit upset herself. "What's going on?"

"One of our little friends is going to help Elin get away from the drama of our home for a while," Kurt said with a light smile.

Krissy's eyebrows shot up, and she turned toward Elin. "Can I come?"

Elin frowned her way. "I thought you didn't like me lately."

Krissy shook her head. "You're being a pain, but you're my best friend, and I would love to get away for a while."

That got a scoffing little laugh. "Fine. Whatever. I'm going to Mom's cottage."

Kurt looked between the two young women and then nodded slowly. "It could be good for both of you," he said slowly. "Someplace you know is real…"

"I have to get Dad's keys and his phone," Elin said. "If you want to talk to me while I'm gone, I don't have my phone right now."

"I'll get some clothes," Krissy said with a little nod.

Kurt waited for Krissy to leave before he snagged Elin by the arm. "Are you sure you don't mind the company?" he asked.

"She's barely said three sentences to me. I doubt that will change no matter where we are," Elin said.

"You may be surprised. She's doing much better, and Christian never saw the cottage. That's a perfect setting for recovery," Kurt pointed out.

"We'll see."

Kurt smiled and then leaned over to kiss her forehead. "I'll take you both myself," he said.

"You don't mind?" Elin asked.

Kurt broke into a grin. "What? Spending time with my girls? Why would I mind?"

She let out a breath and her shoulders relaxed a little bit. "Thank you. I'll go grab some clothes too."

By the time both girls had grabbed their clothes, Kurt had popped over to the cottage already, so that the girls had a good fire warming the place and plenty of food (and coffee) to keep them comfy.

"Thank you," Elin said, after she'd popped up on her toes to kiss his cheek and they were at the cottage and settled in.

Kurt grinned at them both and was sure to wrap them in hugs and kisses before he was off, and Krissy wasted hardly any time in mixing up some hot chocolate for the two of them while Elin looked out of her depth, even at her home away from home.

"Are you okay?" Krissy asked Elin over her shoulder. "I mean… you're not. You're running away. So what's up?"

"I just needed to get away," Elin said.

"Me too," Krissy admitted before she came over to sit by Elin and held out the mug to her.

Elin took the mug and then pulled a blanket up over her lap — offering part of it to Krissy. "You've missed a lot, Krissy."

"Yeah?" Krissy joined her and wrapped up in the blanket with her knees drawn up underneath her.

"Everything always happens at once, you know that … and it did. All of it."

Krissy frowned. "What happened?" she asked.

"Well … your ex is on drugs," Elin said. "And his new ex was still Viper's lapdog."

Krissy stared at Elin and then narrowed her eyes. "Is this one of those things where you're trying to shock me into believing that this is reality or-"

"No, this is what really happened," Elin said as she raised her mug to take a sip.

"Chance is on _drugs_?"

"Turns out Jamie was slipping it to him for months. He's going through detox now."

"Is he okay?" Krissy asked, wide-eyed.

"He'll be fine," Elin said in a flat tone. "He's got Hank and Tyler there to keep him stable. His whole family is taking care of him, too."

"That… Ellie, I'm sorry," Krissy said, her eyes still wide. "Everybody's gone crazy all at once."

"It wasn't any fun," Elin agreed. "But you don't need to apologize for it."

Krissy let out her breath and then rested her head on Elin's shoulder, though she couldn't come up with anything to say.

"He's blaming me for it," Elin said.

Krissy picked her head up. "What?" she asked, in pure disbelief. "What… no. There's no way."

Elin set her mug down. "Doesn't matter."

"Yes it does. _Ellie!_ " Krissy stared at her friend. "The world has gone to pieces while I've been gone!"

Elin was quiet for a long while, just staring out the big windows that overlooked the lake while snow fell in big, puffy chunks. "I don't think that I want to go back."

"Because of Chance?" Krissy asked.

"No, I just … I think I realized I'm not cut out to be an X-Man. Let him have the team. I can do something else."

Krissy was quiet as well for a long time. "I don't… I don't know what the story is here," she said at last, very slowly. "And admittedly, I'm really not at my best. But I think that's crap."

"Which part?" Elin asked. "Because it's all pretty crappy, and I'm really tired still."

"All of it," Krissy said. "You shouldn't let an idiot boy push you away from the team that you _lead_ , and — and that idiot boy _likes_ you, Ellie, so I don't know why he'd—"

"No, he does _not_ ," Elin said with a glare and some serious heat. "Don't say that. You should have seen him. _No_. He hates me. He made it clear."

"Then I must be living in the dreamworld still, because there is no reality where he doesn't like you that makes sense to me," Krissy said. She shook her head. "You said he was on drugs. That must be it."

"Maybe the part where he's not censoring himself," Elin admitted. "But he wouldn't have said what he did if he hadn't been thinking it." She shook her head. "And in a way, he's right. I could smell it on him. I should have said something a lot sooner."

"So you're mad at yourself and him," Krissy said.

"I said _in a way_. I'm not the one that drugged him."

"I know," Krissy said. "But as soon as you say 'should have', I know you're mad at yourself."

"That part doesn't matter. I can't do anything about it."

Krissy let out a sigh and shook her head. She had some time with Elin, and she wasn't sure how to argue it without knowing the full story. "You can't leave," she said. "Because… I need you."

"For what?" Elin asked. "I already did the dress up portion for the month, and it wasn't a lot of fun."

"For…" Krissy let out a sigh. "I need your help, because… because I have a long way to go, and I can't even … Sying tried to kiss me and I _can't_."

"What did that idiot do?" Elin asked.

Krissy's tail went still behind her as she looked down at her hot chocolate. "He… looked like Sying," she said slowly.

Elin's glare seemed to deepen as she watched her friend. "I wonder if you're too delicate to tell what Dad did to the little creep."

"I… don't know," Krissy admitted.

Elin let out a breath and tried not to think about the guilt she'd been fighting from her own moment of anger. Suddenly, she realized exactly why her father would go quiet after missions like that. "He got _creative_ ," she said finally.

Krissy nodded. "Good," she said quietly, then paused, bit her lip, and looked over at Elin. "What… did he know? Your dad, I mean."

"When Rachel was looking for you, he had her put him in the loop so he knew what was going on. So I don't know _what_ he knows — but I know it was enough to really tick him off. And I know that at least four bamfs were tagging out on who was keeping him company. So." Elin let her voice drop a little lower. "He's _so_ not out to get you."

Krissy nodded. "I know," she admitted. "It's just…" She closed her eyes for a moment. "Christian's powers… the hallucinations were stronger the longer… the more … intimate the contact," she said in the softest voice she'd used yet.

Elin set her cocoa down and took the mug out of Krissy's hands before she simply wrapped her up in a hug, and Krissy turned into the hug and simply started to cry.

* * *

Charlie had overheard her dad telling her mom everything that had gone down yesterday, but, she reasoned, that just meant that she was way more prepared to deal with her brother than anyone else was. After all, she knew what he was feeling. She knew how distorted his emotional 'song' was and would be able to run with that information — seeing as she could 'hear' it from anywhere in the house.

But when she got down to the lab, planning to spend her Saturday with her twin brother, she was surprised by the sheer intensity of his emotions. His 'song' was distorted, not the usual sort of jazzy feeling but one that was more… Shostakovitch. Frenzied.

She stopped and frowned deeper when she heard exactly what was going on with him, how absolutely _terrified_ he was — and frowned harder when she opened the door to find that, like her dad had said, he was tied down and totally silent, though he was shaking _badly_.

She'd hardly taken two steps in the door before he spotted her, and his eyes went wide as he very clearly mouthed out 'help' to her, and that had her taking a step backward. She had _not_ been prepared to see him like this, shaking and — she stared. How long had he been crying?

She could feel the terror coming off of him in waves. It wasn't like Dad had described to her, where he was convinced he couldn't trust them. She couldn't feel any anger at all. He was just… scared out of his mind.

And it was one thing to feel that terror and another thing to see it and feel her own reaction to it - which she had clearly not been prepared for.

She was _upset_ , especially because this — this just wasn't her brother. She had seen him scared before, even angry, but this was a bone-deep terror, almost total hopelessness and helplessness.

Before she'd even really thought it over, she was at Hank's desk and working up a glare. "Let him up — he's _terrified_ ," she said.

"Charlie, I wish I could, but he's also incredibly violent right now, and I don't want to have to sedate him again," Hank replied. "It will pass. You can talk to him, try to work him through it, but I cannot allow him to wander freely. Yet."

"He's not—" Charlie shook her head. "Look, I know what happened yesterday, but he's not angry. He's scared."

"He's vacillating rapidly between the two emotions." Hank shook his head. "I wish it was different, but he is textbook right now. And I'm afraid he's unpredictable at best and dangerous at worst."

"This isn't _helping_ ," Charlie insisted, very nearly stamping her foot.

"Not mentally, no, but physically, it is essential for him to work through this."

She glared at him. "You can't _hear_ it," she said.

"No," Hank agreed. "I can't. And I'm very sorry that you can, but as I've said to others, he is in detox. He won't be safe to others or _himself_ until he's past the worst of it."

For a long moment, Charlie just stared at Hank in disbelief that he wasn't doing a thing to help what she could clearly hear from where she was standing — before she just had to leave. She didn't think she could stand being there with that much terror and not being able to do anything about it.

She was almost to the elevator, though, before everything shifted emotionally in that room. Suddenly, Chance was furious, almost venomously so — which, again, was just not something she was used to feeling from him. She paused and frowned and peeked back into the room, but while her brother was struggling and demanding to get out, Hank hadn't moved in the slightest.

She closed the door again and bit her lip. She had vastly underestimated how prepared she was to deal with that, and for the moment, she just wanted to go somewhere else. Because she was pretty sure she hated this. And she couldn't even get properly mad at Hank when she couldn't 'hear' any malice from him, either. He didn't like it either — at all.

* * *

It took Charlie a bit of time to find Vanessa — because first she had to get a hold of her own emotions and push aside the desperate music from her brother — but when she did, she found the little blonde in the greenhouse, fiddling around with the plants.

"Hello!" Vanessa called out brightly when she saw Charlie headed her way. "Do you like to garden too?"

"No, but my cousin does," Charlie said. She took a deep breath. "I was looking for you, actually."

Vanessa smiled at her. "Well, you found me. Now what?"

"I need to ask you about my brother," she said frankly.

"Which one?"

"Chance." Charlie bit her lip. "I don't know what you know about what happened…"

"I know enough," Vanessa replied. "He'll come through this fine … but it's going to take him some time. And some heartache."

"He's terrified and literally out of his mind. His song isn't even the same — he changed _genres_ and he — he—"

"That's because it's the drugs fighting his system," Vanessa said, reaching out to put her hand on Charlie's arm. "It's awful. And terrifying for everyone. But this is the shortest part. I promise."

Charlie ran her fingers through her hair for a moment, the emotion shining in her eyes. "He's my twin brother and he's hurting and I can't do anything and I just need to know that he's going to be _him_ when he gets through this," she blurted out.

"He'll be him," Vanessa swore. "He'll be him like he was before the horrible mini Hydra woman got a hold of him." She smiled brightly. "She's dead now. So that won't be an issue again."

"But you said it would take some time," Charlie said, still looking worried.

"Oh!" Vanessa said before she took a step forward and took Charlie's hands in hers. "No. No no … the thing that will take time is him getting it out of his system and getting back to speed physically. His song should be back very soon. It's just … it's hard for the first week or so."

Charlie nodded once and then simply wrapped Vanessa up in a hug with a gasp as she tried and failed not to cry. It was hard when she could still hear Chance's song even this far out, and her own worry was still ringing in her mind.

"He's got some emotional stuff coming up … but he needs to go through all of it if he's going to be happy in the long run," Vanessa said.

Charlie nodded into the hug. "That's really not what I wanted to hear, but…"

"I know, but I wanted to warn you: he's your twin … it's going to be irritating for you, but … don't get too mad. No one is against him here."

"He's yelling at people, Vanessa."

"I know," she replied. "And he's very lucky that the two of them left together instead of one alone."

Charlie paused and stepped back to look at Vanessa. "Are… you talking about… is she even…." Charlie shook her head. "They're going to give me a stroke by age twenty, I swear."

Vanessa smiled her way and shook her head. "If she'd gone alone, she wouldn't have come back. That's all." She tipped her head. "And then … your brother wouldn't be an X-Man."

"No," Charlie said softly. "He wouldn't."

"But that's not the case," Vanessa said happily.

"Well, good, because I don't know what I would do if that happened," Charlie said. She wiped her eyes with the heels of her hands. "Thanks. I just… I needed… the reassurance."

"And a cup of tea. You need a cup of tea too."

Charlie couldn't help but smile at that. "I really do. Do you want to join me?"

"I would love to!" Vanessa said before she set her gloves down and linked arms with Charlie.


	13. The Damage of Addiction

After a couple days of watching Chance go from angry to scared to depressed and back again and being called every name in the book in the process, things finally seemed to come to a head at last as Hank was taking the night watch.

The first real sign that there was a problem came from the monitors when Chance's pulse shot up, and then, he simply started trying to eject the contents of his stomach at every opportunity.

At the first sign that Chance was falling ill, Hank made it to him in a flash, and before the boy could process that he was even standing there, let alone trying to do something, Hank had removed the restraints and was trying to make sure that Chance wasn't choking without a word spoken.

Chance for once didn't fight him either, too miserable to do anything like that, though he did pull away if Hank even looked like he was going to touch him. Still, between throwing up and coughing and just generally being miserable, he wasn't much able to support himself either, which meant Hank was right there to help him until it seemed like he was finally through — at least with being sick — and simply let himself fall sideways in pure exhaustion.

Hank paused for just a moment before he called Tyler over to help. "I'll take care of the bed - you deal with our patient," Hank decided, leaving Tyler to pick up Chance and move him.

And as for Chance himself, he seemed to be more or less totally wiped out until Tyler moved to set him down, and then he frowned. "Don't — please don't—"

"We're not restraining you," Tyler told him gently. "Try to relax. I'll get you a bottle of water."

Chance let out an obvious sigh of relief at that and did, in fact, relax as he nodded and muttered a little, "thank you."

"I'll bring you a few things to try to help settle your stomach, too," Tyler promised.

"Please," he agreed with his eyes closed. "I don't want to do that again."

"Well, I hate to be the bearer of bad news," Tyler said as he gathered up a few things for Chance. "But that probably isn't going to stop just yet. Sorry about that. Not much I can do."

Chance didn't respond much more than to lean his head back and let out a quiet 'ugh' that made clear how much he hated that answer. Still, it wasn't long after that before he was totally passed out — which was no small feat, considering he hadn't been able to sleep _at all_ before.

* * *

Once again, the snow was falling at a good pace up at the cottage where Elin and Krissy were holed up. The two of them had spent their first days there telling each other what had happened with the different little adventures. Krissy's story was met with many hugs, pauses, and snuggles — and even a batch of chocolate chip cookies that Elin made while Krissy was telling it. Elin's story was punctuated with lots of snuggles too, when she would allow it, but also with a bit of disbelief not only at Chance's out of character reactions but also the fact that, once again, Krissy had missed out on ninjas and swordplay. But Elin left out key, _important_ details from her retelling.

And now, the girls were simply enjoying cookies and cocoa while a nice, thick stew bubbled away on the stove. "We could totally just stay here," Elin said without turning Krissy's way.

"We could," Krissy agreed. "And I would totally be in favor except for a really sweet white-haired half-Kree boy that I need your help with so I don't, you know, destroy him."

"I am the very last person on Earth that is allowed to give advice on boys," Elin pointed out.

"You're his favorite aunt, and I just… he's going to need you, because I like him and things keep getting in the way of that, and none of it is his fault," Krissy pointed out from where she was sitting on the counter.

"True," Elin said. "But I do kind of want to just … come back here and stay here for a… year. Or something." She took a bite out of her cookie. "I could be a hermit in the woods."

"You so could, and all of your friends would die without you."

"Obviously," she deadpanned.

"I didn't mean it literally, but now that I've said it out loud, I can see my mistake," Krissy said with a small smile.

"Isn't it enough that I'm eating cookies with you?"

"It is," Krissy said, smiling wider. "And I would gladly come and eat cookies with my hermit friend as often as possible — but I need you around!"

"Good thing you can port in when you like," Elin said. "And I already said I'd come back. For a while anyhow."

"At least don't become a high school dropout because of a _boy_. Aren't you the one always telling me not to change a thing for boys?"

"I … may have already asked Annie about testing out before all the stupid happened," Elin admitted. "When I came back from Salem Center."

Krissy smiled. "That's great!" she said. "Then you can just lead the team full-time and be amazing - and we'll all be in awe."

"I don't … I think you might be better off with the leadership of Sunshine and the sparkle crew. And I don't think the team needs someone like me leading them."

"Gerry and Sying know how to lead, but they're not as good as you. And Chance would fall apart without you, and you know it," Krissy said with a small smirk.

"I'm not too worried about him anymore."

"I'm just saying why he's not a good replacement leader."

"You are so overselling it, silly Elf," Elin said.

"Ellie, I dated him for years, and I'm still close friends with him. Believe me when I tell you that when it comes to my two best friends, I do actually know what I'm talking about."

Elin gave her a look and then shook her head. "If you say so."

Krissy smirked at her. "We're having a good time, so I won't lord it over you that I'm right, but one day, you'll either see him crumpled in a gutter without you or you two will work things out and I expect a parade."

"Oh, my, _God_ the drama."

"How long have you known me?"

"I'm just saying: you must be feeling better if you're telling _wild stories._ "

Krissy shook her head, though she did look a bit more serious as she looked around the cottage. "I think… this has helped. A lot," she admitted, changing the subject to avoid fighting with Elin anymore. "He's never been here — and never will."

"You did get that he's dead, right?" Elin said.

"I did," Krissy said. "I just mean… I never second-guess anything here. That's all."

"That's good to hear," Elin said. "I'll bet Mom will be happy to hear it too."

Krissy nodded and then teleported over to Elin and wrapped her up in a hug. "It's going to work out," she said. "For both of us. I have faith."

* * *

When Chance did finally wake up again, it was well into the afternoon of the next day, and he was surprised to see that not only both of his parents but Logan were there, too. His parents were talking to Hank, but Logan had noticed that Chance was awake and made his way over.

"How you feelin', kiddo?" Logan asked, though as he asked it, he was obviously looking him over for something the others couldn't see.

Chance shook his head lightly. "You want an honest answer or one to give to Mom?" he said quietly.

"I want an honest one," Logan told him. "I _always_ want an honest one."

Chance nodded at that and closed his eyes as he thought it over. "Not too good," he decided.

"I'll bet," Logan agreed. "You'll get through it, though."

Chance nodded again and pushed himself up on his elbows. "Yeah. I…" He blew out his breath. "You're right? But it sucks."

"I know," Logan replied, though he was frowning at him even as Annie made her way over to very simply wrap Chance up in a hug now that he was more or less upright so she could do it properly.

"You look better," she said — which was an outright lie, considering the night he'd just had, but seeing him _not_ trying to take on the whole lab was actually a different version of 'looking better.'

"Yeah," Chance said quietly and rested his head on her shoulder, though when she started to pet his hair, he stopped and frowned. "Don't—" He pulled back from Annie for a moment and shook his head hard. "I — um — so… Does this mean I can get out of here soon, because it's nice and all, but the decor is horrible…"

"As soon as your vitals are stable, yeah, you can go," Tyler called out. "But you should stay on the grounds until this is totally over."

"Yeah, don't worry, I'm not planning on going anywhere for a while," Chance muttered as he pulled his legs around. "I'm starving. Twinkies in the same place, Dr. Blue?" he asked.

"Of course," Hank replied, not commenting in the least on how things had been going for the past few days.

"Nobody's going to freak out if I just — can I have one?" Chance asked as he moved to get to his feet.

"Certainly," Hank said, nodding. "Help yourself."

Chance looked relieved at that as he made his way slowly over to where the Twinkies were stashed and more or less gulped down the whole thing in one go.

"Oh, honey, we've got to get you something more than a Twinkie," Annie said with a small smile, shaking her head.

"But it's nice to see you eating again," Scott said with a smirk.

"Yeah." Chance went to throw the wrapper on the Twinkie away without looking at his dad.

Logan was watching all of it, looking tense as he took it all in. He knew Chance was off, he just wasn't exactly sure how off he was, how much of this was the kid, or how much was the drugs still screwing with his body. Particularly considering who it was that had been toying with him. He'd gone from rotten girlfriend to head of Hydra awfully damn fast.

But it wasn't until Scott was talking with Chance and ruffled his hair that the problem was apparent to the others as Chance actually pushed Scott back from him. "Don't — don't _touch_ me," he snapped angrily all of a sudden, to Scott's obvious shock as he stared at Chance with his mouth slightly open.

"He's not _petting_ you," Logan said, his voice laced with a growl. "I get it, but you need to take your surroundings into consideration. Get it together. You're not so far out you aren't able to see what's happening."

Both of Scott's eyebrows shot up in Logan's direction as he seemed to catch on, but Chance was shaking his head at Logan and glaring hard. "Just stay away from me," he said.

"I'm just here to help. I'm not comin' close unless I have to," Logan said, his tone even, though he didn't blink once as he kept his gaze locked onto the boy. "Everyone here wants to help."

"Oh sure. _Now_ you are," Chance shot back, not taking his gaze off of Logan in the least — so he missed the devastated look on Annie's face on hearing his tone change so fast.

"Always have been," Logan answered, totally unperturbed. "Always will be."

"Oh yeah. So the part where you didn't trust me — the part where you thought I was _doing this to myself_? Real helpful. Thanks for that."

"You wouldn't be the first person to dip into something they shouldn't have," Logan replied. "It happens."

"I _didn't do it_!" Chance shouted at the top of his lungs, almost hysterical.

"Sure, we know that now," Logan replied easily. "But you need to settle down. No one is saying you did anything to yourself."

"Chance," Annie said in a very gentle tone. "We already told you — no one thinks—"

"Shut up!" Chance shouted, rounding on her with his hands in fists. "Shut up — you don't get to—"

It happened so fast that no one was really quite sure how it happened until they realized that Logan had Chance in a sleeper hold and was calmly knocking him out as he muttered quietly for him to relax. He stepped back from the unconscious boy's crumpled form and just stared at him. "He'll be better when he wakes up."

"That was _completely_ unnecessary," Scott said angrily as he crouched down beside Chance.

"No it wasn't," Logan replied, absolutely unapologetic, as always. "He knew there was a line, he knew where it was, and he crossed it anyhow. He's on the other side of the worst of this crap. It's hard, but he's just following the impulses and not thinking."

"And you think knocking him out like that — attacking him — _that's not helping_."

"Better than letting him hit one of you, and better'n a needle," Logan shot back. "He'll be fine. And he'll hate me, which is also _fine_."

"Logan," Annie said quietly. "That's not — I know he doesn't mean it. You didn't have to do that."

"I've been through it. I know what he's doing. _He knows._ He just doesn't care right now, and there's no damn reason to drag everyone into the pit with him."

Scott still hadn't pulled back the glare. "Look, Logan, I know you've been through the wringer with Viper before—"

" _This isn't a Viper thing_ ," Logan said, heatedly cutting him off. "This is a drug thing. The Viper thing was touching the hair and aversion to needles. The drugs are everything else."

"What are you — what is he talking about?" Annie asked, looking between Logan and Scott and then Hank and Tyler.

All of them but Logan looked as if it was foreign territory, and after a moment, grudgingly, Logan let out a sigh and gestured to Chance. "I've done this. A long time ago. But I did this."

"When?" Scott asked.

"When I was in Central America," Logan replied. "I was doing my own thing. The X-Men were dead at the time. Officially."

Scott was just staring at Logan as Annie pursed her lips. "I thought… you couldn't?"

"My healing wasn't up to snuff," Logan said with a shrug. "Mighta been a little self-destructive at the time. Got into some interesting tight spots. And did a truckload of coke."

"Oh," she said quietly as Scott looked like a whole lot of things were starting to make sense.

Logan was clearly not looking up at any of them. "Didn't think it was that bad, but — so you know, Viper has a nasty habit of petting her victims … at least the ones she drags it out on. Don't … touch his head for a while. I haven't seen the list of what she gave him. Some of her favorites can screw with the nerves for a long time." He made his way over to a chair nearby and simply sat down, his arms crossed, clearly attempting to isolate from the group without actually leaving.

"Oh," Annie said again, even softer this time and looking almost pained.

It was perfectly quiet in the lab for a long moment as the adults in the room digested what had happened — and what was said — before Chance finally started to wake up again. He stirred a bit and then looked around before he frowned and shook his head when he saw that everyone was still there. "Oh man," he said quietly. "Sorry. That — I didn't — I wasn't... " He looked up at Annie. "I'm sorry, Mom."

Annie let out a little breath and then simply sat down beside him to pull him into a hug at the shoulders. "It's alright." She hugged him again for a moment as he leaned into her and then let out a sigh. "You still hungry, sweetheart?" When he nodded, she smiled. "Well, that I _can_ fix."


	14. The Long Path Back

Krissy watched Elin as she washed her hands after she'd spent the whole day hunting. She had been gone for a long time, and Krissy had plenty of time to herself to think… "We should go back," she said.

"Why?" Elin said, turning her way. "Are you in a rush?"

"We don't have to leave right this second, but…" Krissy shrugged.

"This is what I get for going hunting," Elin said.

"I… I really like being here with you, but I don't want to stay here for so long that Sying starts wondering if I'm ever coming back."

"We haven't been gone that long," Elin pointed out.

"We're talking about a teleporter and speedster. An hour is _forever_ to us," Krissy countered with a small smile.

Elin thought it over as she dried her hands off. "You can go ahead of me if you're in a rush."

"You said you'd help me," Krissy pointed out.

"I know, and I will," Elin said. "I'm just not ready to go anywhere yet."

"It doesn't have to be today, but we can't stay here forever, Ellie, and I don't want to go without my best friend."

"I need more time," Elin said softer. "I don't know what to do with myself, and I'm not up to following someone else's timeline."

"Then we'll wait until the weekend," Krissy said.

"I'd say you can text him, but we have Dad's phone, and I don't think you want your string of love notes on Dad's phone."

"No, I don't," Krissy agreed. She smiled a bit. "But I may do that. Write him notes. That's a good idea, Ellie."

"You can call him too," she offered.

"I think I will," Krissy said, then kissed her friend's cheek. "But we really do need to go home soon. We can come back here on a weekend or something, but we need to get back to our _lives_."

"Easy for you to say — she who _has_ a life," Elin said as she rolled her eyes.

Krissy shook her head at that. "You know," she said. "I know you're mad at him, but I thought for sure you'd be dating Chance by now."

"I told you that's not going to happen," Elin said.

"Your reason's stupid," Krissy said.

"No it's not," Elin argued.

"It _is_ and you know it."

"It's not stupid," Elin said as a blush rose up high on her cheeks. "And I'm not going to play placeholder for him anymore, alright? I'm sick of being a stand-in."

Krissy shook her head. "Elin," she said, "he _likes_ you."

"He likes not being alone, and if I'm the only option, then yeah, he likes me."

Krissy shook her head again. "Okay, you're not wrong in that neither of us is good at being alone," she admitted. "That's what got me in trouble with Christian — and that's why Chance dated those idiots he's dated. But that's not what I said. I said he likes you, not that he'd like to date you to wile away the days."

"Krissy … you're wrong."

"I'm right, and you know it, because you know when people like each other."

"You're wrong — and you're so wrong I don't even know where to start."

"Not as wrong as you and your stupid rule," Krissy said. "Do you know what kind of … _Ellie_! I'm going to be self-conscious for the rest of my life about _anyone_ I date if things don't work out with Sying! What if I end up falling for someone that you love and then you never get your Prince Charming?"

"Then I will wish you well and hope you have a fairytale ending," Elin said.

"Ellie!" Krissy threw her hands up. "I want _you_ to be happy too!" Her tail was twitching behind her. "And we're not even talking about if we like the same guy at the same time. _I don't love him_ , Elin. We're done! There's nothing in the world that should prevent you from following _your heart_!"

"He … no." Elin was frowning at her hands.

"Look, you can hate him right now because he's been an idiot, and that's totally fine, but—"

"I don't hate him," Elin said.

"But you won't even consider… Ellie, when we're forty and you haven't even tried to date him because we dated in _high school_ …."

"There is more to it than that," Elin said, shaking her head.

"You really think _Chance Summers_ would go down the list of us like we're notches in his belt?" Krissy challenged.

"Honestly? I don't know anymore," Elin said with a shrug. "And like I said, I am a horrible horrible person at picking anyone to go out with. So it's probably better for everyone if I just ... don't."

Krissy shook her head. "You're a chicken."

"Whatever you say, Krissy," Elin said before she headed over to drop onto the couch.

Krissy teleported over. "It's not even about Chance anymore, Elin. You won't _try_. You're letting Jamie win because you're totally willing to leave and let the last time you saw Chance be some horrible drug-induced _insanity_ and you're letting that nonsense drive you away from your _friends_ and your _family_ and the _team_ and you should stand up and tell them _enough!_ "

Elin looked up at her and shook her head. "You _are_ ready to go back," Elin said quietly.

"I just want you to recover too," Krissy said in a slightly more subdued tone. "You got smacked around too, even if it wasn't as obvious."

"That's kind of what happens with my family, you know," Elin said. "You think I'd be used to it. It's just hard to lose a friend."

Krissy watched Elin for a long time. "So that's it." She let out her breath. "Okay. You're mad. He's gone off the deep end. I get that. But I hope maybe he'll stop being an idiot, because—"

"Krissy, he hasn't had me on a 'go to' list to even chat for a long damn time. I'm tired of prioritizing people that don't _care_ about me in return _._ "

"Elin, he's been on _drugs_ for a long time."

"I'm talking about way before that."

"You mean the years when we were dating and we signed all our emails together? Because I can tell you that he read every one of them and crafted responses with me."

"No, really once he started dating anyone, if you want to get down to it."

Krissy stared at Elin for a long time before she let out a noise of frustration. "You lunatic!" she said. "Why do you think that was?"

"I'm not going to try to psychoanalyze crazy," Elin said. "I'm just going by what I know."

" _It was because he likes you, you lunatic_!"

"That is idiotic."

"He's a _boy_. They're made of snips and snails and idiocy!"

"And you are an overly dramatic romantic," Elin said. "You'd see dramatic romance in any story you wanted to see it in."

Krissy let out a frustrated noise. "That's it," she said. "I'm taking that brownie mix and licking all of the batter and you can't have any."

"That's fine; I don't want any," Elin said.

Krissy let out a little sniff before she teleported off to the kitchen, simply done with the conversation.

* * *

It took a long time still before Hank would allow Chance to leave the med bay, but now that he was able to think a little clearer, and to really realize what the last few days had been like not just for him but for everyone involved, he was a whole new kind of miserable thinking about everything that he'd said and done.

Of course, both of his parents assured him that it was alright, and that they were just glad that he was feeling better now, but that didn't change the fact that he felt _horrible_ about all of it. That just wasn't him. He'd never yelled at his mom like _that_ , for one thing, and half the stuff he'd called Hank and Tyler — and Logan at a couple points — was nothing short of horrible.

At first, he'd tried to ignore it. It hadn't been him, after all. Not in his right mind, anyway. He would have _never_ said any of that stuff if he'd been thinking clearly.

But after he'd spent the better part of a day watching Hank and Tyler be perfect courteous to him and act like the whole thing had never happened, he decided he couldn't do that anymore. He couldn't act like he hadn't been yelling and swearing at them and promising to come after them at every given opportunity.

Finally, when Hank came to check on his vitals one more time before he'd let him leave, Chance took a deep breath. "You know you can be mad if you want," he said. "You didn't exactly ask to get stuck with me yelling at you for, you know, your whole week."

"Chance," Hank said, finally dropping into a chair across from him and taking off his glasses in one smooth movement. "That wasn't you. And I _know_ it wasn't you."

"Yeah, but…" Chance frowned and tipped his head side to side. "I know what I said. And I'm sorry."

"You were lashing out and in pain, and I don't hold it against you in the least," Hank said before he gave him a warm smile. "Of course, even though it's not necessary, apology accepted on the condition that you return if you have any other issues appear."

"Yeah, alright, I can do that," Chance said, looking fairly relieved to hear it. "But I can go, right? I mean, I'll stick around if you say I have to. I'm not trying to — don't get me wrong—"

"Stick to the mansion," Hank said. "Don't go wandering off."

Chance gave him a rueful smile. "Where would I go anyway?"

"I'm sure you'd find somewhere if you had the wrong moment," Hank said, though he quickly held up a hand. "Not Canada. I wasn't insinuating anything. But you'll find that some like to simply disappear for a while."

Chance nodded at that as he got back to his feet. "Thanks," he said, as earnestly as he could. "Really. I was a pain, so ... thanks."

"I'm just glad to see you through the worst of it."

"Yeah. Let's never do that again, huh?"

"Agreed," Hank said, once again smiling his way.

Now with Hank's blessing to leave, Chance was in a considerably better mood getting out of the med bay — though he wasn't heading up to his room right off either. He had one more stop he wanted to make, to find Elin — and Logan. He still couldn't believe he'd _snapped_ at Elin, but he knew he had to talk to her. He was _mortified_ with himself; he hadn't seen her since he'd yelled at her, and he wasn't going to be able to sit still until he made sure she knew that he was absolutely mortified.

He was a bit surprised by how tired he got just looking for Elin before he got to the Howletts' suite, figuring if she wasn't out with the rest of the group, she had to be there — though Logan was the one to answer the door.

"Is… is Elin here?" Chance asked.

"Nope," Logan said, arms crossed as he leaned in the doorway.

"Oh." He let out a breath, at a loss as to where else to look. "I was… I can't find her. I wanted to talk to her …. apologize…"

"When she gets back, you should have enough of 'em under your belt to be decent at it," Logan said.

Chance looked down at Logan for a moment and swallowed. "Right. I… I'm sorry," he said. "Really. I didn't ... you shouldn't have had to put up with that."

Logan let out a little noise that didn't exactly sound like he bought what Chance was saying.

"I _am_ ," Chance tried again. "I feel horrible about it."

"Well, when I believe it, I'll let you know."

Chance was very obviously taken aback by Logan's response, especially considering how Hank had been. "What… I'm not _lying_."

"I know."

"Then why don't you believe me?" Chance asked, still clearly shocked.

"Maybe because I'm not as easy as the rest of 'em are," Logan countered. "Maybe because I feel like you gotta earn that trust back. And a simple 'sorry' ain't gonna cut it."

Chance looked clearly stricken as he shook his head. "But I'm clean now. I'm not—"

"You and I both know that's not the point," Logan said quietly. "A lot of what you said was crap, but you wouldn't have said it if you didn't have that doubt in your head."

Chance shook his head. "That's — that's why I was looking for Elin," he stammered.

"You're not gonna find her," he told him. "She left."

Chance took a step back and looked like Logan had hit him. "...what."

"I'll let her know you were lookin' for her when I hear from her," Logan said.

Chance stared at Logan openly for a long moment before he tried to get a hold of himself. "O… okay. Alright." He ran a hand through his hair and let out a breath. "I… okay." He took in another breath and let it out again. "I'll… I really am sorry. I'll fix this," he swore.

"We'll see how that works out," Logan said before he stepped back and closed the door, leaving Chance to stare for just a moment, working out where Elin could have gone.

* * *

James had a decent break between classes since Scott and everyone had gotten back to work, for the most part. And Chance was up and about … somewhere, though James simply hadn't seen him around.

Until he stepped into the living room in the middle of classes to find Chance there in a full-blown panic attack. Or, at least, that's what it looked like. He was hyperventilating with his eyes closed and a white-knuckle death grip on the cushions of the couch.

"You look like you're going to break a tooth," James said as he closed the door behind himself and headed over to try to talk to him, though considering how hard it was for Chance to get more than a quick breath when he was hyperventilating, conversation just wasn't going to happen.

"Okay, hold on," James said before he simply wrapped his arms around Chance and more or less gave him a massive bear hug. "Try to breathe deep."

After a long moment, Chance finally started to get his breath back in little gasps, and then he finally started to relax.

"Oh cool. I thought that might work," James said, though he didn't let up the pressure. "Neat little thing — pressure over large areas can relax your sympathetic nervous system, kinda suppress it a little bit. Drops your heart rate. Makes you relax."

Chance started to very slowly nod along to what James was saying as he took deeper breaths and muttered a quiet, "Uh-huh."

"But, you know, if you needed a hug, you just needed to ask, ya big drama queen," James said, then before Chance could argue it, he leaned forward and gave him a peck on the cheek just for effect.

Chance froze and then burst into a disbelieving sort of laugh as he shook his head. 'Get off me, you lunatic."

"You're not going to die of happiness now, are you?" James laughed before he let go of him and scooted away.

Chance couldn't help but laugh at that one too. "Yeah, you're overselling yourself."

"Nah. That was a 'by proxy' kind of thing, I'm pretty sure," James said, leaning back in his seat.

"Thanks," Chance said, running both of his hands through his hair as he finally seemed to be getting a hold of himself.

"Anytime … you know, as long as you're dying and no one else can manage it. Don't want to start up fresh rumors."

" _Fresh_ rumors?"

"About how fresh you are, of course."

"Yeah, I'm the fresh one," Chance said, shaking his head.

"You are the older party. Taking advantage." James watched Chance until he knew for sure he was okay — relatively. "Seriously. What set you off?"

Chance took a deep breath and let it out. "I fell asleep, and I guess I was having a relapse. Woke up, couldn't breathe…" He pushed his hands through his hair again. "I … couldn't breathe."

"Well, that doesn't sound very encouraging. But that ought to back off, right?"

Chance nodded. "Hank said it'll get better over time," he said.

"In the meantime, just … keep that in mind. Bear hugs are good. Probably help your serotonin levels, too. You'd have to ask Gerry. He'd know better." James shrugged and let out a breath. "But … aren't you going to classes yet?"

"Yeah, I'm catching up on work," Chance said. "I'm not… I'm not in class yet. I guess everyone's worried I'll yell at someone again — which I won't."

"If you want a tutor, I'm bored. And I'll take you down if you yell at me."

Chance smirked at that but nodded. "I could use the help," he admitted. "I'm still having a hard time focusing, so I feel like I have to learn it twice to make it stick."

"Could be your methods suck too."

"Could be," Chance said with a smirk. He took a deep breath and nodded. "And hey, I won't yell at you. I — I'm done yelling. For pretty much the rest of forever."

"Wow. Dramatic much?"

"I dated an Elf for, like, years."

"Yeah, but still. It's weird on you."

Chance shrugged openly. "Sorry 'bout that."

"About what? The hug? I can shower. By myself."

"The drama," Chance said.

"Yeah, chemically speaking, you're a train wreck," James said. "It'll pass."

"Oh, is that what it's called?" Chance couldn't help but smirk.

"I'm sure there are more elegant terms, but they don't quite paint the picture right."

"No, and you're all about artistry," Chance said, the smirk widening.

"Clearly." James paused, and his smirk stretched into a crooked smile. "You haven't seen the stuff on my external drive, have you?"

"Apparently not," Chance said with a small smile of his own. "Whatcha got?"

"All kinds of stuff. From the trips — with Dad, with Stark.… There are some fun ones from Banner's lab — who, by the way, knows how to prank with the best."

"Wait, wait, there are Banner prank stories and I haven't _heard them_?"

"You've been busy. No time for your old sparring partner for a long time now."

"Yeah, well, I'm not busy _now_ ," Chance said, breaking into a grin. "Come on, man. Don't dangle that on me and then punk out!"

"The pictures tell the story better, really," James said.

Chance gestured with one hand. "Then come on; that sounds _hilarious_."

"Alright — my room. I have a couple externals that I keep the photos on. Just gotta get into it." He led the way up to the Howletts' suite, and when they got to James' room, he gestured to the open chair next to the computer. "Kari comes up here to dig through sometimes and pull the ones she wants to paint off of." He sat down and fired up the laptop, then typed in the passwords to get into the drive before he gestured to the screen. "Help yourself."

Chance broke into an honest grin. "I'm glad you're back, James."

"Why does everyone keep saying that? I'm not … I wasn't _gone._ "

"Uh-huh." Chance shook his head at James. "Whatever you say." He was still grinning as he started to look through the pictures, though the more he saw of what James was capable of — and how much James had been holding back on _showing_ what he was capable of — the quieter he got until he was just drinking in every picture, shaking his head.

He couldn't believe that he'd been so wrapped up in his own drama that he couldn't see that his _childhood best friend_ had a talent like _that_. Obviously, he needed to pull his head out and spend more time with his family so he didn't miss this stuff.

That was probably the only good thing he could say Jamie and Viper had done for him: they'd put him back with his family. Where he belonged.

* * *

Logan was reading his newspaper over coffee that morning when Charlie sat down next to him and smacked him in the head.

"What the hell was that for?" Logan asked, glaring her way.

Charlie thrust her chin out at him. "Figure it out," she said. "You have to earn it."

He smirked and let out a little chuckle before he got back to his paper. "Oh. Alright then. So long as I know." He picked up his mug and ignored the glare she was shooting his way. "But if you want me to start smackin' people, that might change the dynamic a little. I can't hit as _soft_ as you do."

She sniffed at him. "You can try that line on other people, but I'm _not_ other people. You're easy to read," she said. "So I _know_ you don't hate him."

"Never said I did," Logan answered evenly.

"And you're not even really _mad_ at him," she continued.

"What's your point?"

"My point is that he has looked up to you since we were kids, and even with Uncle Kurt always talking about how you only ask people to 'give their best' ... when it's not even his fault? When he's apologized to everyone for being out of his right mind? _Now_ you want to try and destroy my brother?"

"Sweetheart, that song and dance will work with every other person here, but I've been where he's at, and not all of what he had to say to everyone was from the drugs."

"So what?" she challenged. "We all think mean things. I can _hear_ it when people are secretly seething. Or upset. You do it all the time. But you don't say that. Just because it's in your head doesn't mean a thing."

"If I said a fraction of what I thought, I wouldn't be here," Logan pointed out.

"We'd all still forgive you if you were out of your mind saying those things," Charlie shot right back.

"You don't know that," Logan replied. "This place has a history of holding onto your worst mistakes for your whole life."

"Yeah, don't try that line on me," she said with her arms crossed. "I know what unconditional friendship and love feels like."

He set his paper down and finally looked her squarely in the face. "Do you think that I don't have that anymore?"

"If I did, I wouldn't talk to you. But people who act against their feelings deserve to get hit when it hurts other people." She took his coffee mug from where it was sitting by the paper and drank from it. "And I'm not the least bit sorry."

He rested his chin in his hand as he watched her. "Neither am I."

"You're asking my brother to make up for things that weren't his fault," she said. "If he'd been using, this would be different. But you don't fault my dad for what he says when he's drunk. Why is this different?"

"If he'd been using, he'd have a lot more hoops to jump through," Logan pointed out. "And your dad doesn't say anything when he's drunk, by the way." He shook his head. "I'm not saying I won't forgive him, just that I'm not a starting point. By a long shot. In order of importance, I'm way down on the food chain."

"He's already talked to Mom and Dad, and Hank and Tyler — pretty sure you're next. Sorry you think you're not, but you are, and I'll bet you would be nicer if this was anyone else and if Elin wasn't involved," she snapped.

Logan leaned closer and let his voice drop down to a whisper. "If Elin wasn't involved, I wouldn't listen to him _at all_."

Charlie let out a scoff and got to her feet. "You know," she said with a serious glare, "you don't have to be an empath to have a little empathy."

"You don't need to have empathy to decide to roll with what everyone is feeling. I just … don't. This isn't about you. It's about him. And he'll earn it on his own without his sister trying to fix it up for him."

She glared harder and crossed her arms. "He doesn't know what you want him to _do_ ," she said.

"I want him to feel the weight of his choices. All of them. Even the ones he didn't choose for himself. That's called life."

"You gonna do this to Krissy too?" Charlie asked with her eyes narrowed.

"Depends on if Krissy is going to start lashing out and blaming everyone around her for what happened."

Charlie let out another scoffing noise and turned on her heel. "You know, I think I know why kids like you so much," she said. "They're not old enough to know the difference."

"That's probably it," he agreed. "They're also young enough not to think that the world revolves around them."

"That must be your problem then," she snapped before she all but stalked out, clearly furious with him.


	15. Trying To Make Amends

It had been two weeks, and Elin and Krissy were much better for it, but all good things had to come to an end, and the time spent snuggled up by the fire and roasting marshmallows for breakfast was over as the girls teleported into the mansion after a snowstorm had dumped enough snow on the cottage that they couldn't open the doors without digging out.

"So, here we are," Elin said, not at all looking like she wanted to be there as she adjusted the bag on her shoulder.

"Home sweet home," Krissy agreed with a small smile. Then, just to try to get Elin to smile, she added, "Where those stupid pickles are."

"Oh, there were some at the cottage," Elin promised. "I just wanted to give you a _break._ "

"And _I'm_ the part-demon one," Krissy said, shaking her head at her friend.

"If it was the demon thing, I'd have given you one at the cottage," Elin pointed out.

Krissy laughed and shook her head at her friend. A bamf had teleported them into the hallway outside their family's suites so that they wouldn't get immediately mobbed, but she still paused before going inside. "We so need to do that more often," she decided.

"It'll be our way to keep in touch, no matter what," Elin agreed. "Even if we're on the same team and running in the same circles."

"Because sometimes, it's nice to have peace and quiet," Krissy agreed, though before she could turn back to head to her suite, she stopped and grinned when she saw Chance at the other end of the hallway. "Well, look who's on his feet again," she said, looking Elin's way — and frowning when she saw that her friend was utterly gone.

"Don't take this the wrong way, but you look _much_ better," Chance said with a smile as he came to greet her.

She grinned at him and darted forward to give him a quick hug — just a little one. "I wish I could say the same, but I don't know how much worse you looked before," she said, her smile warm and bright.

He looked properly ashamed as he rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah. I should've been there to help—"

Krissy waved him off. "I heard about what happened. Or… the shortened Howlett story version of it, anyway. You know how Ellie is about details."

"Yeah," he said, and his shoulders dropped slightly.

Krissy bit her lip and reached over to touch his arm. "Why don't you tell me what happened?" she offered. She smiled a little more impishly. "Don't take this the wrong way, but it'll be nice to hear about someone _else_ having a problem with a stupid significant other."

"Yeah, she's dead now," Chance said flatly.

Krissy raised both eyebrows at that and seized him by the arm, teleporting out to someplace a little more private so they could talk. "Okay. but you need to spill … like right now," she said. "I know … I _know_ I just spent a little time with Elin, and we talked — _a lot_ — but this? _Why did this not come up?_ "

Chance rubbed the back of his neck. "Maybe because El was the one to kill her…"

" _What_?" Krissy's eyebrows were high on her head, and she was already looking past Chance like she wanted to go find Elin, even if she held herself back.

"Kris, I barely remember a lot of it. It can't have been fun, though, seeing as her dad was down for so long afterward."

"Well … _yeah_ , it was Viper right? That isn't supposed to be fun. But …" she leaned toward him. "She _killed someone?"_ She threw her hands up. "Our Ellie?"

Chance nodded. "Jamie was trying to kill her with Viper's darts, so…"

"This is just … _not acceptable!_ She should have said - _she told me about the ninjas! This should have been part of that, too!_ "

Chance shook his head lightly as he gestured for her to sit down with him; he was too tired to deal with Krissy's drama, even if he knew it would take her a second to calm down enough to sit down with him. "Kris, it sucked all the way around. No one wants to talk about it. Not the worst stuff like that."

"Yeah, K made sure to keep us updated while we were gone by sending what I'm told are _illegal_ photos of Logan sleeping with the little ones and her."

Chance couldn't help but grin. "Jealous. I got a cold shoulder, not pictures."

"Jealous that you didn't get sleeping pictures of Wolverine? Come on. _Why_ would he give you the cold shoulder anyhow?"

Chance took a deep breath and let it out again. "So," he said dully, "I… might have… yelled at El."

"She said you were ugly detoxing," Krissy said, nodding. "So I knew about that. I also know she really really didn't want to come back, but she didn't _mention_ the murder in Madripoor."

"Yeah, well, I told her it was her fault because she could smell the drugs and didn't say anything. So, yeah, I packed the guilt on. Like an idiot," Chance said, speaking more to his shoes than to Krissy. He was _still_ upset about it.

"That explains why she was being so stupid about talking about it, then," Krissy said. "Because she wouldn't. At all. And—" She spun and leaned toward him with wide eyes. "—she doesn't think she can be on the team. That explains so much. She said you could _have_ it."

Chance's shoulders were falling with every word Krissy said. "I don't want it if she's not there."

"Are you insane? That's all you've ever wanted was to be on the team! You're both certifiable! Both of you!" Krissy started to pace with her tail twitching irritably behind her. "I _told her_ she couldn't drop the team over a boy — _even if it was you_ , and now you're talking about doing the same thing?" She teleported over to clip him in the back of the head lightly. "Don't be _stupid_."

"Ow." Chance rubbed the back of his head and looked up at her upside down. "Kris, I'm serious. I don't want to lead the team without her because _I_ screwed up. I'd spend every day knowing my co-leader isn't there because of _me_."

"Yeah, but…" She sighed heavily as she slid into a chair. "... I swear, I never wanted to be this much like my father when I grew up. I had no idea I'd be inhereting _these kinds of stupid problems_." She covered her face with her hands. "Maybe it's not _just you_. Maybe it's the Howlett guilt complex over killing someone who clearly was asking for it _loudly and in triplicate_."

"Yeah, but if I hadn't gotten caught up with Jamie—"

"And if a frog had wings it wouldn't bump its butt on the ground when it hopped," Krissy said with a wave — citing something her Uncle Clint would often teasingly say when any of the kids got too caught up in "what if" scenarios. "If you didn't get caught by Jamie, someone else would have, and I'm sure that sooner or later, _this probably would have happened_ when Elin _had to defend herself_ against a giant goon like that. She said that Viper was trying to kill her parents and Jamie was trying to take you over. It's not your fault that your ex was completely evil."

Chance paused for a second. "That's what she said?"

"Well, results may vary, but yeah, she did manage to speak that much."

For a long time, Chance was quiet before he finally nodded. "That tracks with what I remember," he said. "I was in and out of it for a lot of the time, but… I remember gunshots... and Elin was there taking them…" His eyes were narrowed as he tried to remember more, but even that tidbit — which was new to him — was hard to hold onto when he'd been so drugged at the time.

"She said she took a couple bullets, but she wouldn't tell me about it," Krissy said.

"I'm pretty sure there were more than a couple," Chance said, then rubbed his eyes with his index finger and thumb. "I screwed up so bad, Kris. She put herself on the line like that and I yelled at her."

Krissy couldn't help but tease. "Well … continuing the legacy, by the way I've heard the stories told."

Chance gave her a dry look. "Yeah, not something I wanted to do like Dad, actually."

"It's kinda funny," she teased, holding her finger and thumb slightly apart. "Just that much."

Chance rolled his eyes but waited until she stopped pacing and sat down to bump shoulders with her. "I'm going to try to talk to her, I promise. Can't leave it at that, can I?" he pointed out. "Besides, you look _much_ better than you did last time you were here. Let's talk about that, huh?"

"Yeah," Krissy said as she let her ears droop and she wrapped her arms around her middle. "So … he's dead too, so you know … neither of us need to worry about our horrible exes."

"That's good," Chance said. "And at least the person _you're_ interested in will talk to you still. See? Optimism."

"Yeah, that's true," Krissy said. "But … I … am not ready to talk about that yet."

"Okay, well…" Chance tipped his head to the side. "Then before I track Elin down… Sorry I kind of stole your support people by getting kidnapped. I bet a not-traumatized El would have been more help, so… that's on me."

"It's okay; I wasn't really trusting that any of them were really my people anyhow," Krissy said. "And Elin did get me started before anything happened with you, so …"

"Still." Chance met her gaze. "Really. You're still one of my best friends. I wish I could have helped too."

"I'm glad you weren't there, honestly," Krissy said. "Um … that would have been bad." She shrugged her shoulders to her ears. "Kind of why I am so anxious around Sying, too. Christian used a lot of very bad illusions, and um … when it wasn't my family, it was you two. So."

"Oh," Chance said, catching on quick from not only her body language but how upset Sying had been last time he saw him. "Damn."

"Yeah. Exactly." She brushed her hair out of her eyes. "But I know it was taken care of. The bamfs have been cuddling up a lot more and giving me lots of little kisses and snacks whenever they can and also … bringing Logan beer like … when they can steal some. Which is a lot of the time. He told Papa to get them to stop, if that's any indicator."

"That's impressive, actually." Chance watched her for a second. "You gonna be okay? I can keep back if you need me too…"

Krissy nodded. "Yeah. I was having trouble, but I think two weeks with Ellie did a lot to help get my head on right." She smiled crookedly and bumped his elbow. "Too bad you can't do the same thing. Yet."

"How about I start with making sure she doesn't hate me first, huh? Baby steps."

"I don't think she hates you," Krissy said. "She'd try to ruin your life if she hated you. Unless killing Jamie ruined your life … in which case: _who are you and what have you done with Chance?_ "

Chance burst out into surprised laughter. "That's not what I was saying _at all!_ I thought your family was all about communicating; _how_ did you get it that wrong?"

"I just spent two weeks alone with Ellie." Krissy delivered her line perfectly straight-faced and managed to keep her expression neutral.

Chance laughed and shoved her shoulder lightly. "Missed you, Kris."

"Missed you too," she said. "I mean, I really, _really_ missed you."

"You know where to find me. I resigned from Alpha Flight and everything, so I'm staying here. Promise."

"That'll make it easier for me to help you fix this epic misunderstanding. But I'm going to need details — as many as you've got — as soon as you remember them."

"Only if you let me help you too," Chance said. "You have trouble with reality or with me or Sying, you let me know, alright?"

"You can help me get some ice cream," Krissy said. "If I get nervous around you, I'll let you know. I'm going to work harder for Sying because ... you know … this _never_ should have happened. And I screwed up by not just telling that little creep to buzz off when he came back."

"Same," Chance said softly, obviously thinking something over. "I mean… it was the same for me too. On a lot more than just screwing up." He glanced over at her and let out the breath he hadn't realized he was holding. "So, uh, sleeping with the enemy is not as much fun as the movies make it sound… when there's telepathic interference…"

"Oh no," Krissy said, shaking her head. " _How_?"

"Funny thing about telepathic boost," Chance told his shoes. "Yeah, you get telepathy, but you also get an open broadcast frequency you have to learn how to protect. Assuming you know it's there. Which I didn't. So it left me wide open."

"How long was she doing that?" Krissy asked, frowning deeply, then waved one hand. "Like I said, Ellie told me _some_ things. Just … lacking all the important details. As always."

"Well, I didn't tell her everything either," Chance pointed out.

"Defensive, that's good."

Chance smirked and shook his head at her. "My _point_ was that if you need someone who gets it… I'm probably the closest you've got to the same mindset, even if yours was _way_ worse."

"Okay, but … please, Chance. Really. How long? Because I don't want to let my imagination run away on 'worse'."

"Fall formal?" Chance winced. "I really should have figured it out, seeing as I didn't even want that date to be anything but platonic."

"Um … but … you two … that first … um … what?" Krissy spluttered.

"Honestly? I was gonna ask Elin out after the dance. And everything went upside down on me instead."

Krissy's eyes widened. "How is that not worse than what I had to deal with?"

"Well, I knew where I was, for one thing. And who I was with. And I got to see family and friends for _real_ the whole time…"

"But that went on for _months_ , Chance! And she did everything she could to _kill your crush!_ What if she'd actually done it?"

"We're not thinking about that," Chance said firmly. "Because I'd still be with Viper and Jamie — or dead. So we're really, _really_ not thinking about that."

"At least Christian kept it just … it was just me. He wasn't trying to kill my family or Sying."

"Yeah, but he tried to ruin things between you and Sying in the process."

"And Jamie didn't?" Krissy challenged. "They were both horrible."

"Well, yeah, but …" Chance let out a breath. "We both got pretty screwed, huh?"

"Yeah. And we both got a full response from the team, too."

"Always competing with each other, huh?"

"I mean … if we judge by response, I win, because apparently, Avengers and everyone got involved; but if we judge by how bad the baddie was, _you_ win, because your rescue ended up turning Hydra on its _ear_. And K was doing that thing where she refused to answer what happened other than to smirk and pat you on the head. Or has that changed?"

"No, she's still doing that," Chance said. "How 'bout we just call this competition neither of us asked to be in a draw?"

"I'm going to agree, but only because I don't know if it would be good or bad to win this one."

"Agreed."

Krissy nodded to herself. "Okay. So. You need a plan, right? That's what your family thrives on, so we should make one of those."

"Ah, mine's sort of straightforward? I'm going to track Elin down and apologize."

"Good plan. Excellent hustle." She nodded twice. "How are you going to do that because she just … _Houdini'd_ right in front of me. _Me_."

"I'll just keep looking," Chance said. "Barn, her place, the grounds… I've just got this and homework to do while I'm recovering, so it's not like this won't have my focus."

"I hope you can find her soon and get this over with," Krissy said. "She has some very dumb ideas about how the world works. It would be nice if you proved her wrong on _one_ of them."

"I'll do my best," Chance promised. "What about you?"

Krissy shrugged. "I'm going to find Sying and … see what happens."

"Then I'll get out of your way," Chance said, giving her arm a light squeeze. "Good luck."

"You too."

* * *

Sying was listening to music on the ceiling again, so he didn't know that Krissy and Elin were back until Krissy had walked up to crouch down beside him and steal one of the buds out of his ears to put in her own.

Sying startled a bit and turned her way. "You're back!"

"Surprise!'

He grinned and would have hugged her but paused. "Can I…?"

She reached over and pulled him into a very quick hug and smiled at him. "I missed you a lot, you know."

"I missed you too."

"And I think we should go out," she told him. When he stared at her in obvious surprise, she smiled. "I think… Sying, I already told you that I like you. And I know … it's going to be a long climb. I remember how hard it was with you after Chandilar. But I don't think that means we shouldn't…"

Sying couldn't help but grin at her as he watched her try to form words. "Yeah," he agreed.

Krissy nodded and teleported down to the ground, and Sying dropped down to stand beside her as well. "So," she said, still smiling at him. "I… I don't know where we can start…"

"Start small," Sying said, giving her hand a quick squeeze. "You set the pace, and I'll follow you, Krissy."

"That's not very fair to you," she pointed out.

Sying tipped his head to the side. "Well, we're dating, aren't we?"

"Yes?"

"And I promised you I'd stick with you, didn't I?"

"Well, yes."

"Okay, so.. When it was me, Grammy K let me set the pace with collars. It's not _quite_ the same, but I'm not going to kiss you unless you kiss me first. Okay?"

Krissy nodded. "Okay," she said, then darted forward to hug him quickly. "You're amazing."

"I definitely am," he teased her, then tipped his head to the side. "So, how do you feel about maybe going out to dinner?"

She smiled a bit wider. "I like that idea."

* * *

Chance had been trying to catch Elin — but she kept ducking him after class and she wouldn't come to meals at the same time as him. If there was any brighter neon flag that she was avoiding him, he'd have gone blind.

But he couldn't — he _couldn't_ — let her go on thinking — he just couldn't leave their last conversation the way it had gone, and he was determined to track her down. He finally did manage to catch her when she was in the barn, though it looked like she was on her way out, and he had to run to catch up to her — which was still a little rough for him because the boost had been messing with his speed, and everything felt weird when he tried to go fast and just _couldn't_.

But he did manage to run to the barn before she left and called out to her, "Elin, wait!"

She glanced up for just a moment. "All yours — saddles are where you left them."

He shook his head as he panted. "No, I — I wanted to talk to you," he said. "I just… I wanted to apologize."

Before he could get any further into it, she darted forward and slipped under his arm and right for the exit. "Don't need to."

"Elin!" He spun around, but she had already slipped off, and the truth of the matter was that he was too tired physically to go after her, especially in the woods. He stared after her for a moment before he slammed his hand into the side of the barn and swore under his breath, rubbing a hand over his face before he headed inside.

He was frustrated — how was he supposed to salvage his friendship with Elin if she wouldn't even talk to him? When he got inside, his mom was working on some chocolate fudge and smiled up pleasantly at him. He wasn't sure which of the many different traumatized kids she was making the fudge for, since it seemed like everyone was screwed up at the moment, but she paused what she was doing when Chance came inside and frowned as she made her way over to him.

"Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, Mom," he said, shaking his head.

She raised a single eyebrow at him and then simply pulled him into a seat and sat down beside him. "Chance, sweetheart," she said, "the drawback to having your father's face is that I know all of the tells."

"That's really not fair," he pointed out.

"Mmm," she said, waving her hand, unconcerned. "Now, what's wrong? Do I need to call Hank?" When he looked up at her almost in betrayal, she shook her head. "It's a fair question, Chance. I know for a fact that you had the shakes all last night. You're not done with this nonsense."

"It's not a … I don't need Hank," Chance muttered.

"Well, that's a relief," Annie said, then leaned over and kissed his temple. "So, what's bothering you, sweetheart?"

"Mom—"

"Chance, if you say 'I'm fine', I'm going to smack you upside the head."

"Thanks, Mom."

She reached over and smacked the back of his head and gave him a _look_. "Chance Summers, you know better than this."

He rubbed the back of his head and bit back the angry response that wanted to bubble up. Instead, he took a deep breath and closed his eyes until he finally nodded. "I have to make this right, Mom," he said quietly. "I … Dad helped me write a letter to Mac and the team up north… I've talked to everyone who was in the med lab… I even apologized to Krissy for taking away from the attention that people should have been giving her."

Annie nodded along as she watched him. "I know. Your father and I are proud of all you've done," she said.

"Elin won't talk to me," he said flatly. He scrubbed both of his hands over his face. "She runs away from me, Mom, and I can't… I _yelled_ at her and I said horrible things to her and at this point I don't even care if she never wants to have anything to do with me; I just need to know that the last conversation I have with her isn't _that_."

Annie watched Chance for a long moment before she simply let out a breath and pulled him into a long hug, kissing the top of his head as she held him tight. "Sweetheart," she said quietly, "you do care. You care _so much_ it's tearing you up."

Chance nodded for a moment before he wrapped his arms around Annie's middle and sat there for a long time with his forehead resting on her collarbone. "I don't know what to do, Mom," he mumbled.

"I know," she said.

"I don't know how to … I just wish I could go back and take it all back, and I don't know how to fix it if she won't even talk to me," he said.

Annie nodded and kissed the top of his head again. "Sweetheart, if I understood how to get anyone in that family to listen to kind words instead of negativity, I'd have a full head of brown hair." She rubbed his back gently. "I don't know either. I only know that if I could take your heart and mend it myself, I would."

He was quiet for a moment and then hugged her a bit tighter. "Love you too."


	16. Cornered

Meanwhile, the lab was quieter than it had been in a long time. While most of the mansion was focused on helping the battered kids recover, the resident doctors were taking a well-deserved rest, sitting back and chatting as Tyler showed his dad the latest pictures of his kids.

"Tammy's already pushing for one more," Tyler admitted. "Our family doesn't feel complete yet."

"Yes, I'm sure _Tammy_ is the one getting impatient."

Tyler laughed at the dry look on Hank's face. " _Dad_!"

"Yes?"

Tyler laughed again, leaning back easily. "You're just impatient to be a grandfather again, aren't you?"

"It's not _my_ impatience that you should be concerning yourself with, Tyler," Hank replied, his smile widening. "Perhaps you should expedite your return home."

"Yeah, maybe," Tyler said. "It's kind of nice to hang out with you for a while, though. Seems like I don't get to see my dad too often unless something or someone is falling apart."

"Then perhaps we should make plans with better regularity."

"I like that idea," Tyler said, pocketing his phone as he got to his feet. "I told Kurt I'd give his family a priesthood blessing before I left…"

Hank's smile warmed up. "Go," he said gently. "This house could use every bit of life and love we can give it."

* * *

When Sying met up with Krissy for dinner, he was trying not to get his hopes up too high. He knew Christian had done a number on her and didn't want to push, after all.

So he was surprised to see her standing there in a light summer dress, her tail moving nervously behind her.

"You look great," he said before he could censor himself. Not like he was lying.

She blushed a deeper purple than usual. "Thanks," she said, then let out a long breath. "Mom got us a private booth at a restaurant in town. She said she'd pay for the whole thing to make sure we went somewhere new that Christian had never taken me…"

"I think that's a good plan," Sying assured her, though he suddenly felt underdressed.

Kaye waved to him from the other end of the Wagner suite. "Have fun!" she called out. "Don't give me a reason to shoot you!"

Krissy rolled her eyes at her mom before she tentatively offered Sying her hand. "Mom gave me the coordinates, so I can get us there."

Sying nodded and took her hand, grinning when, an instant later, they appeared in a fancy Korean restaurant, where there was, in fact, a booth reserved for them.

They ordered their drinks and looked over their menus, but Sying decided what he wanted quickly so that he could watch Krissy instead — and not just because she looked gorgeous. Which she did. But he also wanted to make sure she was as okay as she was trying to force herself to be.

He had far too much experience with that kind of thing, after all.

She seemed alright talking to the waiter, but once the two of them were alone, he noticed that she kept holding her arms close to her chest, like she was trying to be smaller. And he didn't have to have personal experience to read her body language. She was more than nervous. She was upset.

"Krissy," he said gently, catching her attention.

She looked up and then turned a pale purple. "I'm sorry," she said reflexively.

Sying quickly held up both of his hands to show that he wasn't a threat. "Krissy, hey, if we need to go back home, we can. I don't want to push you too much."

"I'm fine," she promised.

"Really—"

"Really," she said firmly. She even smiled his way, regaining more of her color as she leaned toward him. "I'm exactly where I want to be. I just have to keep reminding myself of that sometimes."

"Okay," Sying said gently, but when she kept smiling, he relaxed too.

Maybe — just maybe — this could work.

* * *

For another week or so after the incident at the barn, it was impossible for Chance to track Elin down. He couldn't catch her after class — even though he _tried_ — and in the few times when he had seen her around the barn or at breakfast, she would ignore him and leave.

So it was almost a miracle to him when he finally managed to track her down to one of the gym areas, and he knew he had to act before she ran out again.

"Do you mind if I join you?" Chance asked from the doorway, though he was sure he'd at least stay there if she said no — not working out or joining her but just… trying to talk to her.

Elin paused, stiffening up just a bit before she decided to try to ignore him as best she could. "Free country," she replied, not looking his way as she continued her stretches.

He nodded and stepped into the room, stretching out one side first as he kept looking her way. "Listen," he blurted out before she could change her mind, "I… suck. Those things I said to you—"

"Forget it," she replied, cutting him short. "You had to tell me what you thought."

"I didn't mean anything I said," he continued. "I swear."

" _Whatever._ Just drop it. I don't want to talk about it."

He frowned and switched sides, stretching in silence for a moment before he took a deep breath. "That's _not_ what I think about you," he said. "I don't think you'd do anything to hurt me on purpose, and I _definitely_ don't blame you for what happened with Jamie. That was all her."

Elin paused in her stretching and frowned deeply to herself. She thought she was being clear about not wanting to discuss this. She let out all her breath as her shoulders slumped. "Why are you doing this?"

"Because you think I hate you - or that I blame you. And that's just not true."

"I …it doesn't matter," she replied, turning her back to him and going back to the last of her stretches. "You can blame me or hate me — whatever. You're allowed. I did what I had to in order to fix it, and I'm not sorry. I can't be or … " She let her statement fade off before she shook her head. "It doesn't matter."

"It matters to _me_ ," Chance said. He'd stopped pretending to stretch as he shook his head and stepped around her. "Elin… you're the most amazing person I know. You saved my life, and I yelled at you… And it's been eating me up knowing that you think I hate you."

"Well, don't let it do that," she said, not meeting his gaze.

"I'm trying to make it up to you," Chance explained.

"Nothing to make up," she replied quickly. "It's fine."

"No, it's not," he said just as quickly. "I was stupid. And wrong. And _mean_."

"You can stop talking," Elin said as she started to wrap her hands. "It doesn't matter. I had it coming. I should have said something sooner."

"What I _should_ have told you was that you're one of the smartest people I know," he continued right on, not listening to her. "You're amazing, El. You literally saved my life. I've never met anyone like you."

"Please don't do this," she said seriously, meeting his gaze with a perfectly flat expression. "I don't have time for smoke."

He shook his head lightly. "It's not smoke. Let me tell the _truth_ , Elin," he said. "I'm trying to make up for lying. And for yelling at you. And just… being an idiot. So let me tell the truth."

"You don't _have to say anything to me_ ," she repeated as she adjusted the velcro on the first wrap. "Ever. It was the job, right? That's what we're supposed to do."

"I'm not just talking about what happened with Jamie," Chance said as he reached around her to grab his own wraps. "I'm trying to tell you: out of everyone I know, you're the last person I ever want to hurt. And I did anyway. And now I can't figure out how to fix it, so I'm just trying to tell you everything." The words started to tumble out of his mouth faster than he was even really thinking. "You're smart, and you're brave, and you're funny, and you're kind, and you're pretty-"

Elin had stopped and stiffened up when he started his list, but as soon as she realized what he was up to, she darted toward him. "Stop now," she said, covering his mouth with one hand. "There is nothing you need to fix."

He kept on talking around her fingers. "And you know what you want and don't let anyone stop you."

"Stop now before I _make_ you stop," Elin said from between her teeth.

"What am I doing that's so wrong?" he asked.

"You're …. You're not acting like yourself at all." She shook her head as she took a few steps back and went back to wrap up her other hand.

"No," Chance said, shaking his head. "When I told you it was your fault, _that_ wasn't me. This? This is one hundred percent me, Elin. Putting it on the table. Because you deserve to know how astounding you are." He looked totally serious. "I've been clean for weeks, El. You can ask Hank — I'm totally in my right mind. And I mean every word."

"Where the hell is this even coming from?" Elin asked, glaring at the ground as she worked on her wrap. "Is this some part of your therapy or something?"

"I told you: I'm trying to tell you everything. The truth. All of it," he said, shaking his head at her. " _This_ is what I think of you. You never give up on your friends. You're thoughtful and remember little details—"

"Knock it off, Summers, or I'll put you on the ground. This doesn't change anything."

"—You stand up for your friends and your family—"

Elin let out a little noise and darted forward, sweeping his legs out from under him and pinning him before he could get out another word. "Please, _stop_...this _ridiculous_ nonsense."

"It's not nonsense," Chance pointed out, looking sincere. "It's _not_. I really do think all those things, El. Ever since we were kids. That hasn't changed."

"I'm going to knock you out." She sounded entirely exasperated.

"For telling the truth?"

"For trying to screw with me with this goofy pop culture crap."

"It's not — Elin, the last time we talked, you ended up running off to the cabin, so excuse me if I felt like I needed to set the record straight. It was a pretty serious hurt to get you gone like that, and it was my fault. All of it. Not. Yours."

"It doesn't matter." She let out all of her breath in a rush, though she looked as if it hurt her to even say as much. "You were detoxing. I didn't want to be around it."

"I know," he said. "And I'm sorry. I was a jerk."

"You already said that. Which means this is just getting repetitive. So stop it _._ "

He watched her for a long moment and then tentatively smiled up at her. "But if it's not repetitive… I could go on," he said.

"You're not working on the cats essay, and I don't _need_ the smoke."

"I am _not_ blowing smoke," he said, sounding offended. "There is _so_ much material, and I'm not going to stop until you believe me."

"Then you're wasting your time. Are you doing this to everyone?" she asked, her nose scrunched up as she did her best to channel her father in a mood. "Because it seems a little over the top. Even for you."

"Well." He paused and flushed. "No… but… I … don't think all those things about my parents. Or yours. Or Hank."

"That's too bad. I think I'd pay to see this conversation with Hank."

"Yeah, but I don't…" He flushed again and then swallowed. "I haven't… had… a crush on _Hank_ since I was old enough to know what it was."

Elin stared at him for just a moment, and a little blush bloomed quickly high on her cheeks. She opened her mouth to say something, then closed it before she managed to pull her words together. "You're … so completely full of crap _._ " She let go of his wrists and slipped off of him to sit next to him, cross-legged on the floor and doing her best to look smaller.

He shook his head as he got to his feet. "Ever since we were kids," he said. "Really." He gestured openly with both hands turned up. "You don't have to go out with me or anything — I wouldn't blame you if you don't even want to be friends anymore after what I said — but I'm trying to tell you the truth. And that's part of it. You were never interested, so I dated around, but I thought you should know. Maybe that'll help you believe me; I don't know. But it's the truth, Elin."

"Who said I wasn't interested?" Elin asked, her arms wrapped around her knees.

"You did," he said, his nose scrunched up. "You've always made a point to say we're best friends — and that's fine. I get it; I do."

" _You've_ always made a point to kiss every pretty girl that walks past you and fall off the face of the earth until it blew up," she pointed out. "You literally dated every available girl and called me your best friend. What was I supposed to think other than 'not good enough to even consider'?"

"Yeah, I know," he said, still looking perfectly open. "I just …" He cleared his throat. "I… don't want to screw up with you. I _like_ you, El. So if you're not interested, I'll stay your friend, if that's okay and if you even want to be around me. I just wanted you to know you're pretty much the best thing that's ever happened to me." He let out a breath and put down the wraps that he hadn't even started to wrap around his hands. "Anyway. You can hate me if you want; I know I deserve it."

"I haven't ever hated you," she said, shaking her head as she got to her feet. "Very nearly broke your face, but I didn't hate you."

"Well, _that's_ a relief," he said with a small smile.

"I just don't want to be a placeholder for anyone until the next pretty girl comes through. That really sucks."

"Elin…" He let out a breath. "Do you know _why_ Jamie started drugging me?" he asked after a moment, trying to put it all on the table, like he'd said.

"Because she was an evil hag that was using Viper as a life model?"

"Well, yeah, that." He smirked. "But … I was never interested in her. And I was never going to do more than take her to the dance as a _friend_ ," he admitted. "And she knew it. She was so jealous because I…" He blushed. "I couldn't get over you — and I couldn't get past you and Gerry at fall formal and I—"

"Gerry took me as a pity date after all the _mess_ with Jacob," Elin said with a laugh that held no humor. "He had to talk me into wearing the dress."

Chance shook his head. "I wished it had been me," he admitted. "I _still_ wish it had been me."

"You were doing just fine without me," she pointed out. "You had plenty of fun."

"I was _high_ ," he pointed out in response. "That's how she got me to stay; I was either high or she was in my head making it impossible for me to _leave_."

"I don't know what I'm supposed to say to that," Elin said, "especially considering how that ended." She lost all of her growl, and her voice dropped to almost a whisper. "I don't _know_ what to believe."

"I'm just…." He let out his breath. "I came here to apologize. And to tell you the truth. And clear the air and tell you I've liked you since we were kids. And I just came here to tell you that I don't blame you in the least and that I don't hate you and to — to tell you the truth. And I wasn't planning on — but if you wanted to go out to dinner or something, that would be great, but if you just want me to leave, I'll do that too." He held out both hands. "You know if I'm lying. I'm totally clean. Nothing's impairing my judgement. This is all me here."

"It's just—" She shook her head. "It's just hard to believe … I'm not even your type? So are you sure this isn't like some kind of … after the fact thing? Some kind of … trench whatever … or something because I helped get you out of there? You've been conspiring with Krissy, haven't you?"

He looked taken aback. "What do you mean — Elin, I've wanted to ask you out since I was old enough to know what it was! I wanted to put Nolan in the ground when he was dating you, and the _only_ reason I didn't ask you out before the semester started was I was going to _Canada_."

"You didn't … No." She shook her head slowly. "No, you didn't."

"No, I didn't, and it was stupid of me, because I have _never_ gotten over you," he said, totally earnestly. "I have a lot to make up for, and that's part of it, and I wasn't coming in here to ask you out but—"

"No, that's not right," she argued. "That can't be right."

Chance shook his head. "Okay, what do I have to do for you to believe me? Because I'll do it."

"I don't know, but you're freaking me out a little bit, okay?"

"I'm not trying to," he swore. "I'll… if you want me to back off…"

"I just need to process this. It's not..." she said, clearly looking distressed. "You're telling me you liked me this whole time, but you couldn't _talk_ to me for most of it?"

"I…" He rubbed the back of his neck. "I was trying to get over you," he admitted.

"Then you didn't _want_ to like me? Every chance you got, you'd tell me I was your friend," she pointed out, a lot quieter than before.

"I thought that's what you wanted? And yes, I know, I'm an idiot," he said. "I'm an idiot, I'm _really bad_ at decision-making, clearly, and I'm trying _so_ hard to fix it."

"And now you're … telling me I'm _pretty_? That's just weird."

"Complimenting you?" He shrugged openly. "It shouldn't be weird. That's just… what I think."

"It's … I don't even know," Elin said. "When did you start thinking that?"

"Umm. I don't remember. I was too young to remember," he said, once again rubbing the back of his neck. "I've pretty much sort of… you're kinda the gold standard? Even when I was trying to get over you and date other girls, you were the high bar." He shook his head. "When you started wearing your hair down, I think I stopped being able to think straight for the next… month."

"I thought you hated it," she said. "I was ready to keep it short if it wasn't so hard to stay that way."

"What?" He looked wide-eyed. "No, that — no. I… I couldn't even …" He shook his head. "Okay, clearly I suck at this. So, for the record? Yes, I like your hair down. Yes, I've liked you since I was a kid. Yes, I tried to pretend I didn't because I thought you didn't like me. And no, I'm not lying about any of this." He paused. "Did I cover everything? I mean, broadly speaking. There is like a whole lifetime of me being stupid to make up for here, but I'm hitting the big points…"

"I don't know," she said. "What's next? And does it involve more compliments?"

"I… don't know," he admitted. "I guess… maybe let's just … try this again? I can try to tone it back if you hate it that much."

"I don't know if you are capable," she replied, shifting all her weight to one foot. "Seeing as it was so hard to get you to _stop_ with that … _nonsense_."

"Well, first of all, it's not nonsense. And second of all…" He shrugged. "I … can try to limit myself to a compliment an hour? Space them out?"

"See, I'm afraid you'd take the whole hour to talk through it?" she said, pulling a little face. "Just to be spiteful."

He shook his head seriously. "No, I'd do it like this." He took a deep breath and grinned crookedly. "Elin… I think the world of you. Now, I have to wait an hour."

For as awful as his delivery was, she tried to stop her smile but couldn't as she started to shake her head. "You're insane — you know that?"

"If you're going to answer all my compliments with accusations, I'm going to have to request two compliments an hour."

"It's not an accusation. It's working off of what intel I have in front of me. And you … are touched."

"Well, you're the one who can't take a compliment," he pointed out. "But don't worry; I won't give you one for another…. Fifty-eight minutes. You're perfectly safe."

She reached out and swatted at his arm with her mouth dropped open. "You really don't need to do that."

He couldn't help but smile and even took it a step further, taking a deep breath. "But... you didn't say no to a date."

"I didn't, did I?" she said, shifting to the other foot. "Even though I _really_ should." She let out a breath. "What do you want to do about that?"

"Well, I kinda want to kiss you? But I was thinking I'd start with picking you up at seven to go to the sushi bar," he said, grinning outright.

She tipped her chin up and narrowed her eyes as she looked him over. "Alright," she said finally.

He kept right on grinning before he rushed over and wrapped her in a hug — then immediately stepped back. "Ah…"

"That was a terrible hug for someone who has said he wants to apologize, Summers," she said, shaking her head slowly. "What happened to the good ones?"

"I… am trying to go on a date with you and not scare you off, and earlier, there was a threat about rearranging my face..."

"Because I'm _so_ scared of you," she said, giving him a little smile.

"Well, you did run away to a cabin? And then you put me on the ground."

"What, are you new? That's what my whole family does. And it's not because we're scared of someone." Elin said. "It's because we're scared we'll say something or do something that everyone will regret, and _usually,_ when we're given a little space to process? We get over it."

He nodded, looking abashed, before he let out a light laugh and picked her up in a hug that spun a few times before he finally set her down again. "Better?"

"I suppose that'll do for now," she agreed.

"Okay. Okay, well, I… am … gonna go … make sure there's gas in the car and probably shower and… stuff," he said, suddenly more nervous as he headed for the door.

"Chance?" Elin called out. "How fancy are we going?"

"Not _too_ fancy," he said, pausing in the doorway.

"Jeans or a dress, is what I'm asking," she told him.

"Yeah, I don't think the sushi bar has a dress code," he said. "You can wear jeans. I think you look better in them anyway. You look more comfortable." He paused. "Oh. Crap. That was two compliments, sorry."

She nodded her head. "Ridiculous. And you were answering a question."

He laughed. "Right, well, I made a promise. I'm trying to keep it."

"Questions and answers almost have to go outside of the rule sometimes," she said. "It was my fault for not telling you to just _pick one._ "

He shrugged. "Elin, you could wear anything and I'd still…" He paused. "Right. Fifty-two minutes."

She broke down laughing with one wrapped hand over her mouth. "Go clean up, please?"

He was still grinning as he backed out of the door. "See you at seven, El!" he called out before he took off running down the hall.

Because the one thing he hadn't been thinking about because he was so caught up with trying to tell Elin _everything_ was the fact that he wasn't _supposed_ to be going anywhere.

"Hank?" he called out when he got down to the med lab, steadily more nervous as soon as he got there because — well — he didn't want to have to tell Elin he _couldn't_ take her out after all that it had taken to get to this point.

"Chance," Hank called back in a boisterous tone. "What brings you back to the lab so quickly?"

"I … umm." He took a deep breath. "I know you said not to leave the grounds, but I — I sort of—"

"Oh dear," he said, frowning as he headed over to Chance and started checking over his eyes and vitals. "What kind of shenanigans were you going to try to talk me into?"

Chance swallowed, sure that Hank was going to say no if he was already going into doctor mode. "I sort of… asked… Elin… out," he said in a mumble, getting quieter with every word.

Hank straightened up, his eyebrows high on his head as he stared at the young man. But that lasted for just a moment before Hank took him by both shoulders and let his voice drop to almost a whisper, though he was obviously grinning. "Did you now?" he asked. "Where were you hoping to take her?"

"The sushi bar," he said. "It's not far. And I swear I won't leave town…"

"Is that anywhere you went with your last attachment?" Hank asked.

He shook his head. "No," he said quickly. "Jamie mostly… well. Ah." He flushed and took a deep breath. "No."

"Then you won't be visiting any of the same places, is that correct?" Hank asked as he moved to start rifling through the drawer nearest him.

"Right." He nodded quickly. "She didn't come down to the States much anyway. Just for the big dance, really."

"Then … I see no reason, since you'll be with capable hands who I know will take you down if there is a problem, that you can't go out for one evening. Back by midnight or whatever time you're given by someone else. Just be sure," Hank said as he handed Chance a small device, "that this tracker is on your person at all times."

Chance nodded quickly and pocketed the tracker. "Thank you," he breathed out, sounding totally relieved.

"Yes, yes," Hank said, waving him off. "Phones on - both of you. And you both should carry a panic button as well. All things considered."

"Got it," Chance said, nodding along to everything he said before he broke into a little grin. "I — I gotta go — I have to change…"

"Good luck," Hank called out as Chance hit the doors to the lab.

"Thanks!" Chance called over his shoulder, outright grinning by the time he got to the elevator and in a serious good mood until he hit the hallway and saw Logan taking a break from grading his papers.

 _Oh. Crap._ Chance swallowed hard when he saw Logan. _I didn't think about this part either._ He paused, took a deep breath to steel himself, and then took a few steps forward.

"Something on your mind, boy?" Logan asked, not looking up at him until he cracked open the beer in his hand then slowly met Chance's gaze.

"I… I talked to Elin," he said. "I told her everything. All of it. How stupid I am. And how it wasn't her fault. And how…" He looked down at the floor and took a deep breath. "And how much I like her," he told the floor. "Everything."

"And?"

"And…" He took a deep breath and seemed to gain a bit of steam. "I swear, I _swear_ I wasn't going in to ask her out, but it just sort of… came up and I did, and she said yes, so—"

"So, you're going to be respectful, right? Because I'm kind of in a mood already. Especially after cleaning up that mess..."

"Yes, of course," Chance swore quickly. "I'll open her door and — and—"

"Keep your hands to yourself."

"I will," he promised, again very quickly. "I'm not — I'm _never_ going to do anything to hurt her again. Ever."

"Then you don't have anything to worry about, do you?" Logan replied.

"I… you're not…" Chance swallowed hard. "No. I just… thought…" Logan didn't shift his expression in the least and simply held his gaze, not moving a muscle as Chance tried to explain himself. "Right. Well. I, um, I already told Hank where we're going and we've — we've got panic buttons and — and my timing could probably use some work because I know you don't trust me but I _swear_ I'll take care of her and I won't hurt her and if she never wants to go on another date after this I won't push her or anything. I just… thought… I had to tell you… the whole… story, I guess," he said, gaining speed and then sort of petering out by the end.

"Don't do anything stupid," Logan said, finally turning back to what he was doing. "She knows her curfew."

"Yes, sir," Chance said. "I mean — no, sir, I won't — I won't do anything -" He let out a breath. "I'll get her home by curfew."

"Chance," Logan said as Chance started to head toward the stairs. "Try to relax. You're making your sister twitchy."

"Oh." Chance nodded. "I — okay. I'll work on that. I swear."


	17. Little Steps

Once Elin was done with her workout, she headed upstairs, slowly unwrapping her hands as she went. She had over an hour to get showered and dressed before she was set to meet up with Chance … _for a date_. And she was reasonably sure that it was a mistake, all things considered.

She shook her head, unsure if it was the right move or not but really needing to at least hear him out and see … well. She just had to see. When she finished cleaning up, she stood in front of her closet for a solid ten minutes just staring at the contents. She hadn't worn a dress in months, but if they were going to the sushi bar, jeans weren't exactly appropriate either. And a date with anyone while wearing a dress had her anxious after how things had gone with Jacob. She didn't want to send him the wrong message, after all.

But, she reminded herself, this wasn't Japan. And the American sushi bars would be full of people in jeans and sneakers. A dress wasn't required, and even if it was, Chance was _nothing_ like Jacob. It should be safe.

Still … the idea of it made her nervous. She shook her head as she thought it over and picked out her nicest sweater instead. It was almost fitted, fuzzy, red, and long enough to just cover her hips and let her hide her hands in the sleeves if she wanted. Nothing that would show any skin, which was a deep concern for her.

She pulled her long, dark hair back and didn't bother with any makeup. More often than not, it distracted her … the scents of it simply too close to her nose to ignore. But still, she didn't rush off. Especially since … they didn't exactly say where they were meeting up. After a moment or two to consider it, she let out a breath and headed down to the kitchen to get a cup of tea while she waited for time to pass. There was still a solid chill in the air and snow on the ground, so she didn't feel bad taking her cup back upstairs to warm her hands up.

When Chance got to the door, in a nice blue shirt and pants, he had a long-stemmed rose in one hand and a sheepish sort of smile. "I… wasn't sure if… I thought a bouquet would be too much and…" He shrugged lightly and held out the rose. She could tell he was nervous just by the scent of him, not to mention the way he was standing, but he couldn't stop smiling, either.

Elin plucked the rose out of his hand and rested it on her chin. "It's very pretty. Thank you."

"Not as… well. That's not a good one for my one compliment an hour," he said, his smile turning a little more crooked.

She let out a soft laugh and set the flower on her dresser. "Alright, so you're competing with yourself now. Okay," Elin said.

"You're the one who can tell when someone's lying," he pointed out as he offered her his arm. "So… am I lying when I tell you that you look absolutely amazing?"

She shook her head. "You are _biased_ on some kind of level … I don't know what, but you are. Do you want to go or just … stand in the doorway all night?"

He laughed as he led the way out to the hallway. "Well, I _could_. Just stand and bask," he teased before she gave a wave to her parents — and the two teenagers started down the hall. "Besides, you never said yes or no if I was lying," he continued.

"Oh. I didn't think I had to teach you about body language," she teased, though she was steadfastly watching the steps on their way down them.

"You're the one who seems to have the problem reading it," he shot back, grinning.

"Not true," she countered.

"Then how, _how_ , can you be so very wrong about whether I'm lying?"

"I said you were biased," she replied. "You _think_ you're telling the truth. So … for you, I guess it's at least partly there."

He shook his head at her as they headed for the garage. "Okay, but if the statement in question is about my own opinions… I'm just saying."

"Okay, not lying."

He grinned triumphantly as he snatched his father's keys from the ring on the wall by the door to the garage and then held the car door open for her. "Don't worry," he teased. "Unlike my mom's side of the family, I _can_ drive in the snow."

"Well, I would hope so," she replied as she climbed in. "If not … you'd have to let me drive. Mom taught me the best in-your-own-lane donut."

"So, you can drive on the way home," he said. "That sounds fun."

"Or we can go to an empty, icy parking lot and I can tell you how to do it yourself," she pointed out.

He grinned but couldn't stop his blush. "Yeah, that would be fun too," he said. He took a deep breath and glanced her way with the keys in the ignition. "Last chance," he said. "You don't have to go out with me. But if you're still on board, sushi and donuts in the parking lot…"

"Is this how you back out on me, Summers?"

"I'm just… trying to give _you_ an out," he said, looking surprised. "I mean… because I'm an idiot?"

"And if I need an out, I'll make it myself," she countered, straightening out her sweater and then resting her hands on her knees.

He grinned as he got the car started and nodded to himself. "Yeah, I know you will," he said, still grinning to himself as they went down the long driveway.

When they got to the sushi bar itself, Chance made sure to vault around the car so he could open her door and then held the door to the sushi bar open for her as well. Then, they found a spot to sit that was a little further removed from everyone else so they could have some relative quiet to talk.

After Chance gestured for her to order for them — _omakase_ , which only got a smile from their waiter — he leaned toward her with a little smile. "So, I'm… moving back to Westchester," Chance said. "Permanently."

"Tired of Canada?" she asked. "Or don't want to deal with … whatever?"

He nodded. "A little bit of both," he said. "I really enjoyed flying, and I actually liked the team. But these guys… the government guys… no. I'm not going to be anywhere near them."

"Kind of a skeezy move on their part. I couldn't figure out why you'd want to join that team anyhow," Elin said, shaking her head. "Dad said they were nothing but drama from day one."

"It was never going to be permanent," he admitted. "I only signed on for two years. And the suit kinda had something to do with it…"

"Yeah, I know. You told me, and I know the suit was some serious bait. But ...you know they offered Dad the leadership position to stay when they were trying to bait him," Elin told him. "And he still walked. That … has to tell you something."

"That was a long time ago," Chance pointed out. "And I sort of figured it was different. The old team's starting to retire… it was _supposed_ to be a fresh start. At least, that's what Mac and I talked about," he said, a bit softer, as he looked downright embarrassed.

"You really need to ask Dad about his time there," Elin said in a gentle tone. "Mac … is a little different."

"Well, it doesn't matter. I can't go back," Chance told her. "I don't know if that makes me a coward or what, but-"

"It's called being smart," she said, cutting across him. "Nothing wrong with self preservation, so I'm told."

He grinned and nodded, picking up his chopsticks when the waiter returned with their order. "I've already talked to Dad about finishing out the semester here," he said. "And getting back into training." He smiled sheepishly. "I'm… not going to be as good as I was when Jamie was 'helping' me. There's a lot I'll have to get used to all over again. Strength, speed — all of it. Even running feels wrong right now, not to mention anything that involves strength..."

"You'll get it back quick enough," she said. "You don't know when to quit, after all."

"Just the way I was made." He grinned at her. "I was going to ask: you wouldn't mind practicing with me, would you? I mean — I can ask James too. But—"

"I'm not going to take it _easy_ on you if that's what you're hoping for," Elin replied evenly. She held up her hand to stop him, gesturing to the slice of fish he was about to pick up. "I don't think you'll like that one. That's one of James' favorite 'shocker' pieces. Tastes stronger than it looks."

"Actually, that's why I asked you. Everyone's been taking it easy on me ever since the detox," he said, smirking to himself while he adjusted his selection. "Dad's been keeping everything low-level."

"Of course he is," she said, shaking her head. "He's been worried sick. Making him go gray."

"Ha ha. He's been going white since we were kids."

"That's all _you_ …"

"Oh yeah. Cody, Charlie, and Chloe have _nothing_ to do with it," he laughed.

"Nope, just you," she agreed. "The troublemaker."

He laughed again and shook his head. "Well, what about you?" he asked, leaning forward. "Gonna spend senior year at Salem Center? Try it again?"

"I'm … kind of over the whole thing, honestly," she admitted. "I think James had the right idea."

"So… you want to make explosives with Tony Stark?" he asked, smirking despite himself.

"No, I meant … skipping past everything. I already talked to your mom about taking the tests to skip the rest of school. And for the record, James is already tired of Stark again," Elin pointed out. "There are only so many explosives he can make and pranks he can pull that won't be ridiculously large and horrible."

Chance laughed. "Yeah, well, then when I'm back up to snuff, he can give me a run for my money on the team."

She leaned forward and dropped her volume down a little lower. "He challenged Dad in the Danger Room a few weeks ago — you were in the med bay at the time. Funniest thing. Ever."

"Okay, we're going to need to watch the tape of that, because now I'm curious," he laughed.

"James didn't stand a chance," she laughed.

"But you know he had the confidence down _pat_ ," Chance chuckled.

"He did, but I don't think Dad even used both hands? He was smoking for most of it."

"Yeah. That… that needs to be shared, El. Badly," he laughed. "I mean, not like I can talk. I doubt your dad would even raise a finger fighting me at this point — if he even agreed to it." The grin dropped a bit at the thought as the check came around, though it returned in full force when he made a show of checking his watch before he leaned forward. "You should laugh more. You've got the best smile, El."

"You're an idiot. But it's nice to see you relaxing a little again," she replied softly as she fiddled with her sleeves.

He nodded lightly. "Yeah, well…. Thanks," he said, rubbing his neck unconsciously. "I don't know how I would've got through the last little while without you. Or, y'know. Hank… Mom and Dad..."

"Everyone was worried about you," she told him. "And … probably a little more stubborn than most."

He looked sheepish. "How's… how's Krissy, anyway? She's the one everyone _should_ be worried about. I talked to her a bit, but you're the one that spent a couple weeks with her..."

"She's coming around," Elin said. "She had a whole rant about the pickles almost as soon as we got out of Westchester."

"I'm glad," Chance said, leaning back. "You're good with her." He paused and then grinned. "You know… when I was psychic for a hot second, I could hear Sying panicking for her."

"Yeah, I remember. We were talking about Hawkeye hearing it too."

"I just meant… he's got to be glad she's talking to him again." He smirked. "It's been a long time coming." He paid the bill and left the tip, then held out a hand to Elin. "So. I know you don't get as bothered by the cold as us normal people do, but would you say no to some hot chocolate?" he asked.

She tipped her head to the side for a moment. "I suppose it's been a few days since I had any," she said. "Anywhere special in mind or just … head home?"

"Well, there's a coffee shop… they actually have the _best_ cocoa on top of the best lattes…"

"Alright," Elin said with a nod, though both of them stopped when they stepped outside; there were big white flakes falling.

"Well, now I'm sad I used my compliment inside. This is _gorgeous_ weather. Perfect setting," Chance said with a crooked grin.

"Perfect for …"

He grinned over at her. "Well, it falls on your eyelashes just right…." He held up both palms. "That was an answer to a question."

"Sneaky," she said, nodding with a crooked smirk. "But much cleverer than the watch."

"Hey, you're not the only one who can be sneaky," he said, grinning wider.

"Yeah, but you have to work at it," she countered.

"I didn't say I was as good as you," he pointed out. "Just that I could do it."

"Alright," she said with a little smile. "Lead the way."

He took her hand in his as he led the way — the coffee shop wasn't too far from where they were, so it would be better to walk, he explained, because then the hot chocolate would feel even better.

"And it's a sneaky excuse to hold hands," she pointed out with a nod.

"Well, that too," he admitted. "You don't mind?" When she shook her head, he grinned wider and nodded to himself as they rounded the corner where the coffee shop was. Once more, he held the door open for her as they went in, and by the time they got their hot chocolates, they were at least a little warmed up, though the hot drinks felt good on their hands and down their throats.

"If it was warmer, there's this great gelato place in the city," Chance told her after a moment just sitting together and enjoying their drinks. "I mean. Maybe later. When it's warmer."

"If you're up for it, maybe you can go with us to Japan to check in on Hisako and the satellite there next month. Sakura season should be going really well by then. Cherry and plum ice …"

His grin was threatening to split his face as he nodded along. "That sounds amazing," he agreed quickly.

"The group in Japan wants a full school," she told him.

"Are you thinking about going there?" he asked her, his head tipped to the side.

"I think … that would be tempting fate after how we left Madripoor," she said slowly.

"I'd come get you in a heartbeat if there was anything like trouble," he swore, leaning forward toward her.

"I know," she agreed. "But if the swearing was anything to go by, I don't think Dad believes it to be a very good idea."

"The school or you going to the school?" he asked curiously.

"The school," she said, smirking. "He told me I wasn't allowed to go to school in _Australia_."

"Well, then I guess you can finish out school here," he said slowly and with a little smile.

"Probably about the only option, really," she agreed.

"You thinking about college?" he asked, leaning back a bit. "Gerry loves it, and Charlie's already making plans for a PhD in psychiatry, to listen to her talk."

"I don't think that's something for me," she replied with a frown, shifting uncomfortably at the subject matter. "My 'talents' don't go along with a degree."

He frowned to match her and held up his hands in a 'T' for time-out. "Okay, this isn't part of the complimentary thing. I'm genuinely asking. You're smart as heck, Elin. I _know_ you've got the grades to get in pretty much anywhere if you wanted. So maybe I'm missing something here."

She waved a hand and shrugged up her shoulder. "Nevermind."

"No, really. You could do anything. What's the holdup? Some schmuck in college admissions tell you mutants can't get in, because I can hit him…"

"No, I'm not applying," she replied.

"You don't want to go?"

"What the hell would I go for?" she asked. "Really."

"Linguistics, maybe," he offered. "You learn languages like no one I've ever met."

"So … go to school to have to listen to someone try to tell me how to do what I already know?"

"Well, I dunno. I'm just throwing out ideas," he said with a frown. "I mean, you don't _have_ to have a degree. Look at the teachers at our schools; not like they're classically trained."

"No," she said. "But I don't really want to teach anything either."

"So then you can just focus on the team," he said, nodding. "I'm not going to stop training until I'm where I need to be to get back on the team, you know. Senior squad eventually. When I get better. When I can earn it. I know it's usually after graduation or around then, but I have a ways to go..."

"So … by the end of the summer is what you're shooting for," she said with a nod.

"Only if you help me," he said with a crooked smile.

"I already said I would," she said quietly. "I'll be your coach. Yell at you at inopportune times … the usual. Knees up. Elbows in — _walk it off._ That kind of thing."

"I just meant that I'll get it back faster working with you," he explained. He got to his feet and offered her a hand up. "You know," he said thoughtfully, "what about something with horses? Don't need a degree, but you're good at it."

Elin sighed heavily. "Maybe."

He took her hand in his as he headed for the door. "I mean, _I_ want to be on the team more than anything, and if you were leading it with me, that would be pretty much the best thing ever, but you could do something else, you know."

She rolled her eyes and looked up at him. "You're rambling."

"Yeah… I'm not wrong, though," he said as he pushed the door open for them. The snow was falling heavier now, though not badly enough that they would need to hurry inside.

"I told Krissy I wanted to be a hermit. She took it as a personal offense."

"Surprising absolutely no one."

"Hey, we had snow. And deer. And she even had chocolate. What more is there?" Elin asked as they started down the sidewalk.

He shrugged openly. "The team… family… I dunno, El. I couldn't leave everyone like that."

"They'd move on quick enough," she said.

Chance frowned and turned to face her. "Please stop saying things like that," he said seriously. "I mean it - everything would be different without you in my life, so please don't say things like that."

She looked taken aback as she watched him, but finally, she nodded with a quiet apology before they continued their walk in silence for a long stretch. "Alright … so what's next on your master plan?"

"That… was about it," he admitted. "We can walk around for a while, if you want."

"That sounds nice, unless it's too cold for you," she said.

"I'll let you know when the frostbite starts kicking in," he teased.

"I'll have to build you a fire," she told him, bumping him with her shoulder.

He laughed. "I promise I'll tell you before it gets to that point. You'll probably catch on anyway. Shivers. Sniffles. All that."

"Yeah, we won't let it go that far," she agreed. "Unless that's the idea. Get all … sad and cold and require a fire."

He laughed and shook his head. "No, I… wouldn't try to be underhanded about it if I wanted that."

"I'm teasing," she said with a little chuckle.

"I do like the hand-holding, though," he said, holding up their hands between them with a crooked grin.

"It's a nice change of pace," Elin agreed, though she let go of his hand and put her arm around his back. "But better suited for warm weather."

He grinned brilliantly at her as he carefully pulled his arm around her shoulders as they walked down the streets together. It was a long time before either of them spoke, and he just kept right on grinning until he turned her way. "Is it bad I don't want to go back?" he asked.

"Is it bad you don't want to go back to the loud, opinionated population of the school? No."

He laughed outright. "I _meant_ I didn't want to go back and be done with this date," he explained. He flushed even pinker than the cold was already making him. "I mean. Well. I've been wanting to ask you out for ages… and it's pretty much the best thing ever."

"I still don't understand what took you so long if that's what you wanted to do," she told him.

"Yeah… I screwed that up pretty good, huh?"

"Don't dwell on it," she replied.

"Right. Rookie cadet time travel error," he teased.

"We can go for a drive if you want to stay out later; it's probably too late for a movie though."

"Yeah, and you wouldn't get back in time for curfew."

She frowned at him and scrunched up her nose. "Oh. That's _fluid_ , you know."

"It… what?"

"Dad's way of handling things; instead of a set time, if it's a bad date, I can say my curfew is … whenever and he'll play bad guy."

"So… since you're not pushing a curfew… you're not totally hating it?" he asked, starting to grin.

"Have you seen me check my phone?" she asked with an eyebrow raised, then paused. "Or .. if I had. My phone."

"Good point," he said. He grinned at her sideways as he started to turn them both around, back toward where the car was parked. It was a bit of a walk — they hadn't realized they had walked as far as they had — and he started to laugh when the snow came down even heavier. "Well now my nose is numb," he teased. "I have utterly failed at telling you when I got cold."

"All we can do now is go back to the house to warm up," Elin replied easily. "Because you'd probably blush red enough to melt the ice off the windshield otherwise."

True to form, he turned a bit red as he looked her way. "That... "

"I meant _snuggling up_. That's all, pervert."

"I wasn't…" He turned even redder. "I _wasn't_."

"Uh huh," she said, rolling her eyes. "That's what they all say."

"We're…" He shook his head and tried to get his blush under control. "Well. No. That… wasn't… where I was going with … it's the _first date_ and oh God your dad would _kill_ me…"

She was just smiling up at him with a contented kind of look. "Wow. Nervous much?"

"This was going a lot better before you tried to turn me into a tomato."

"I didn't try," she teased before she popped up on her toes and kissed his cheek. "I did. And I didn't even try that hard."

He turned that much redder, though he was grinning broadly. "I… can't help it," he said, pulling her tighter around the shoulders as they finally reached where the car was parked, and he quickly grabbed the scraper from the backseat to get the snow off the windshield. He opened her door first, letting her sit in the warming up car while he quickly got the snow off, then jumped in the driver's seat, stifling a yawn and still grinning widely.

"Oh, that's not going to work," she said, reaching over and taking the keys out of the ignition.

"O... kay. What?"

"Either you're tired or I've bored you. Which one is it?"

He shook his head vehemently. " _Definitely_ not bored," he swore. "I'm just… it's been the month from hell, really. It's fine. I'm just tired."

"Pretty sure you won't be fine if we slide off the road, big guy," she said. "Trade spots with me."

He raised an eyebrow at her for a moment before he let out a breath and nodded, opening his driver's side door. "I'm not that tired," he protested even as he slid out to make room for her.

"Then let's go with: you said I could drive back," she replied.

"I did. That was when we were going to do donuts, though," he pointed out.

"Not icy enough," she said, shaking her head. "I'd hate to hit a dry spot and flip."

"Gee, Elin, if I didn't know better, I'd say you were worried about me," he teased lightly as he climbed into the passenger side.

"Oh, right. Not like I'd fly to Madripoor to kick the trash around for you or anything."

"Thanks for that, by the way. I know I already said thanks, but, _really_."

"You're welcome. But once was enough."

He rested his chin in one hand as she started up the car and pulled out of the lot. "It… bears repeating."

"I still think once was enough," she argued. "Guess we're going to have to work the maple syrup outta you."

He laughed. "It's pretty deeply ingrained," he teased. "At least I didn't start tacking on 'eh' to the end of my sentences… eh?"

" _Yet_. You haven't started yet, hoser-transplant."

He kept right on laughing at that. "Don't know what you're talking ab-oot."

"If I find out you adopted a moose … I'll have to tell my mother about you."

He grinned at her and then attempted his best impression of a straight face. "His name's Reginald."

"Of course it is," she chuckled. "Now I know why you wanted to be in Alpha Flight - so you could ride Reginald into battle."

"I do know how to shoot on horseback. Same concept."

"Horseback … mooseback … same difference. Quarterhorse to swamp donkey …"

He grinned. "And I'd look _great_ doing it, too."

"Your father would die on the spot. Loons would mourn in the background and the south would rise up and burn Canada to the ground. Which, as I understand things, is still a very real possibility."

"Well then it's a good thing you rescued me before any of that nonsense could start up," he laughed. "I'd hate to miss my mom on the warpath."

They were only about halfway home when the snow started falling heavier. "I can see just fine, but you might want to let someone know we're on the way," Elin said. "A couple people are a little concerned still."

"Yeah, I know," Chance said with a sigh before he drafted up a quick text to both of his parents to let them know they were on their way home — and Elin was driving. He figured that would help his mom relax a bit, anyway. She _hated_ driving in the snow. He glanced up at her and smiled. "Don't know how you do it, El. Taking care of everybody at once like you do."

"Part of the job," she replied.

"Yeah, it's alright, I won't tell anyone you care."

"Uh huh, pretty sure that ship has already sailed," she replied. "I'm just doing the same thing you do: acting how my parents raised me to be."

"Yeah," he agreed. "Doesn't make you any less amazing, though." He grinned and held up both hands. "On the hour, I swear it."

She let out a long breath. "I'm not … _timing you_ , you ridiculous Summers."

"I'm … trying to prove you can trust me to keep my word," he said, totally earnestly. "I know trust is hard to earn back. So… I'm holding myself to my words. Even if you don't."

"You're sweet," she said quietly. "And I don't know what to do with you being like this."

"I don't _expect_ you to do anything. I'm just… trying to do right. Like you said: that's how we were raised, right?" he said, leaning back easily.

Elin nodded, doing her best to keep to the quickest path back, sure that he was exhausted by the way he kept going back to his crooked grin. The drive back was mostly empty roads, since it seemed like the few people that lived out that way weren't travelling that night, though a mile from the house, she did slow almost to a stop, watching the road with her eyes narrowed. Before he could ask what was wrong, though, she tipped her chin toward the road. "There are some deer crossing."

He grinned over at her. "Then it's lucky you're driving," he decided. "I never would've seen them."

"That's why I drive in the snow," she said, giving him a little smile before she picked up speed again. The two of them got back without incident, and Elin took her time once she parked the car back in its spot. "Safe and sound, as promised."

"Course we are. Couple of X-Men," he said with a small smile.

"Second generation X-Men to boot," she added.

"So clearly, we know what we're doing," he said, quickly getting out so he could open her door even if she'd driven. "Can I walk you home?" he asked with a crooked grin.

"You sure it's not too far out of your way?" she shot right back.

"Oh, I don't know… I think I can make it," he said, offering her his hand again and still grinning at her as they headed inside — where, to his relief, the house was pretty quiet as they headed upstairs, except for one single bamf who spotted the two of them and giggled, chattering away at them.

"Knock it off, nosy," Elin said, flicking the little bamf on the ear.

The little guy grinned up at her, kissed her cheek, and teleported off.

"Could be worse," Chance chuckled. "I mean, my mom could be here asking if we need anything like… soup or something."

"Your mom wouldn't do that," Elin said, shaking her head.

"Not normally, but she's been a little closer since Canada and...everything," Chance admitted. He held her hand a bit tighter for a second as he grinned over at her. "I don't mind it, actually. I… kinda missed the whole family, to be honest. Which sounds stupid, because I lived in Europe for a while and didn't miss them as much…"

"It only sounds stupid if you think it's alright to blow off your family," Elin pointed out.

"Which I don't," he said quickly. They reached the top of the stairs, and he turned toward her with a grin. "I missed being here. Really. This is where everyone is that I care about."

"Then I'm glad you're with them," she said with a quiet smile and her eyes downturned.

He grinned at her again and then very carefully stepped in and kissed her. "You too, El," he said, grinning when the kiss broke.

She bit her lip and met his gaze for a moment before she gave him a little smile. "Goodnight, Chance," she told him before she stepped in and closed the door behind her.

Chance grinned at the door for a second before he rushed off toward his own suite. Elin hadn't been wrong — he was tired — but he was _way_ too excited to care about that when he came bursting into his suite and grabbed Charlie to spin her around in a hug.

It took both Annie and Scott by surprise, but Charlie must have felt his excitement coming, because she didn't seem surprised. She just grabbed back onto him and hugged him tight. "It's about time," she whispered before she let him go, still grinning.

"Didn't mean to get you all twisted," Chance promised, hugging her again, though she raised an eyebrow at that.

"Date go well then?" Cody called out with a smirk. " _Finally_?"

"As a matter of fact, yeah," Chance said, not about to rise to that bait before he leaned over and kissed Annie on the cheek."Hi, Mom. Got home safe."

"I can see that," Annie laughed, pulling him into a hug to stand on her toes and kiss his cheek right back. "I'm glad."

He just grinned at that and made it a point to grab Chloe on his way past to spin her around too until she let out a little giggle and he set her down again on his way to his room.

* * *

_Chance, you still awake?_

All things considered, Chance _had_ almost been asleep, but he was glad to see the text from Sying, smiling wider because he knew Sying had been planning to go out with Krissy. _Yeah. How'd it go?_

_Well, I think. She was nervous. Is it weird if I ask your advice?_

_Why would it be weird?_

_Because I'm asking you about your ex._

Chance paused to consider his answer. _I won't give you romance tips…_

_Yeah, I wouldn't ask that of you. I'm just asking advice on how not to screw her up._

_Oh, well that's totally different. I'm definitely up for advice._

_Great. I'm coming over._

Chance grinned and sat up, rubbing circles in his forehead with the heels of his hands to try to wake himself up a little more. That way, by the time Sying arrived, he looked less like he'd been about to fall asleep when he got his friend's text… he hoped.

"You look terrible," was the first thing Sying said.

So much for his attempt to look presentable.

Chance smirked and waved Sying over to sit with him. "I'm still recovering. But that's the last thing I want to talk about right now. Seriously — how did things go with Kris? You're grinning wide enough that it must have been a good date."

"It was, I think," Sying agreed. "She got nervous a couple times, but we both had fun and she said she wants to do it again."

"So what's got you so worried?" Chance asked, honestly confused. "Sounds like things went well!"

"Yeah, but she's still so nervy…"

"I'd be more concerned if she _wasn't_ ," Chance pointed out. "And the fact that you're so worried about getting it right with her tells me you won't hurt her. So… what's up?"

"I just… I'm just nervous too, I guess."

"Understandable," Chance said, bumping shoulders with his friend. "You've only liked her your whole life."

"Yeah, speaking of…" Sying smiled crookedly and bumped Chance's shoulder in return. "You're grinning pretty hard too, you know."

"Yeah, well, things went well."

"Good."

* * *

Chance was still walking on air the next morning, and Charlie couldn't help but sort of float around him all morning as they got ready for school — and he went off with their dad to go figure out his schedule.

She was still riding the high from his happiness when she got to the kitchen.

The Howletts were, of course, down at the table early, as always, hitting their morning routine in relative silence — coffee or tea, nibbling on whatever was quick, and all of them reading. Papers, books — something.

Charlie was still grinning, though when she saw Logan, she still had to come up behind him and smack him in the back of the head.

"Girl, you better find a better way to say hello," Logan growled out.

"Then you stop trying to help me by twisting up my brother," she shot back.

"I'm not twisting up anyone," Logan countered, perfectly dry.

"Right," she said, rolling her eyes at him. "So the fact that my brother stopped in the middle of celebrating his first date to _apologize_ to me had nothing to do with you."

"I can't guess what the hell his intentions are," Logan grumbled. "Ask him, not me."

"I don't have to. He's my brother. We talk. He's _trying_ to do right, and somehow he got it in his head that he needs to fix something with me. Which he _doesn't_." She put her hands on her hips. "Stop it."

"I'm not doing anything," Logan replied, though he was smirking lightly at her.

"Don't lie to me; it doesn't work," she sniffed at him.

"I'm not lying," he said.

"He's really not," K agreed.

"Not _technically_ ," Charlie said. "That's not the same as being fully truthful."

"He's not lying by omission either," K replied. "It's your perception of what's happening that makes you think he's lying. Not something he can control." She picked up her coffee and took a long drink as Logan lifted his arm for her to lean into him.

Charlie rolled her eyes at both of them. "You—" she said, pointing a finger at K "—know what's going on too. So stop it."

"Are we picking sides?" K asked perking up. "I wanna pick sides. I like this one."

Charlie shook her head and grabbed a Pop-Tart to take with her. "You're both stupid," she decided, grumbling to herself as she headed out.

"Ooooooooh, that's a comeback you don't hear every day!" K sang out just to irritate her.

"Anything else would get me in trouble with my mother!" she called back before she ducked out the door.

"You're getting to her," K said as she leaned up and gave Logan a kiss. "Not the prime target, but I like this too."

"She'll get over it," Logan muttered into K's hair as he returned the kiss. The two of them settled in to their breakfast together, mostly taking the time to watch the goings on of the morning and to get a better handle on where everyone _else_ in the mansion was as far as Chance's recovery.

Clearly, the bulk of the mansion was willing to simply take it all at face value, but considering that Chance was now openly pushing to date so quickly after what could only be described as a relationship of disastrous proportions, Logan wasn't there yet. And neither was K. It happened to be one thing that Logan could take solace in - knowing that his wife was agreeing with him shored him up to stick to his guns.

Yes, he wanted to believe that Chance was quickly getting back to himself, but he knew all too well how much whiplash Chance was dealing with coming out of something like that. Whatever came next could either be very good or very, _very_ bad, especially taking into consideration that his daughter, who had already disappeared once because of this boy was th girl that Chance had his sights on.

If Chance wasn't careful and meticulous about how he treated Elin, he would chase her away- likely for good. The implications that could follow were horrifying.

Charlie came though the kitchen just as Logan was trying to shake loose the what ifs and on her way past, she made a point to pause just to glare at him. He wasn't surprised by that, either. Summers' were notoriously known to Logan for their blinders and rose-colored glasses, as it were.

The fact remained though, that good intentions didn't outweigh lifetimes of bad luck, as far as Logan was concerned. He wanted to see Chance succeed and to recover seamlessly, he honestly did - on the same level of investment that Chance's parents had (not that they had any idea of that) which was _why_ he couldn't back down. Everyone else had given Chance the green light to forget it all and move on. Which was something Chance might even do, but if he moved on _too_ fast, _too_ seamlessly, Logan was honestly afraid that he wouldn't learn the lessons that the kid had painfully had to live through.

He didn't want Chance to have to repeat lessons like that for anything. Especially not with anyone else's heart on the line.

When Scott and Chance came through as Logan was pouring up his last cup of coffee for the morning, he glanced up to watch them and kept his expression and body language as neutral as possible. Seeing Chance miss a step and watch as his breath caught in his chest for an instant had Logan feeling like crap … but he also straightened up and said hello, if not a moment too late.

He was trying. Logan could see it plain as day. He was trying with _more_ than he had to give. Logan watched Chance the whole time as he got himself a cup of coffee - much quicker than e would have with Logan standing next to the coffee pot. He watched Chance as he rushed his breakfast by grabbing a pop tart and zipping off to class. And as soon as Chance rounded the corner and Logan turned his focus back to his coffee, he caught the full bodily shift as Scott crossed his arms and gave him a dry, yet heated look that shouted 'really'.

And of course, all Logan could do in response was stare back at Scott as if nothing had happened at all, refusing to rise to the bait more than just to return Scott's dry glare with a neutral expression.

"Don't you have a class to teach?" Scott said finally, one eyebrow arched up in a manner that when Scott still had to wear his glasses, that would have been all that was visible to give away how irritated he was. At least as far as facial expression went.

"Think they'll start without me?" Logan asked smoothly as he lifted his mug to take a sip. Now probably wasn't the right time to tease, but damnit, Logan needed something to pull himself out of the anxious feeling in his chest, and for some reason or another … this always worked. As long as Scott stayed to form and didn't turn it into a fight …

Scott let out a sigh, though his mouth was tight. "Logan-"

"Don't get twisted. I've got it, Slim. I've always got it."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well then! We've come to the end of this volume, but we have more to tell, so as always, keep your eyes peeled for the next installation to our shared 714 Universe: "I'm Not Giving Up On You".
> 
> Please remember that our side story 'What Billy Saw" will continue to be sporadically updated and can be read at any time (if you are this far, anyhow) though won't be crossed into this universe properly for a little while.
> 
> Also remember to support your authors by commenting now and again - any positive remark will do. Just remember, if it's hard for you to think of something to say in this stressful time, imagine how hard it is for your authors to manage to write coherent words together.


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